中国素有“治乱世用重典”法制传统。封建社会历代统治者为了维护根本的经济利益和巩固自己的政治统治地位,都将法律作为一种有效统治工具,尤其是刑事法律更为统治者青睐。刑罚以其强有力的威慑性,执行刑罚残酷性,在统治内部的权力斗争,在镇压被统治阶级暴动起义方面发挥着独特的作用。中国现代的法治实践中“重刑主义”思想,在许多人的观念中仍然根深蒂固。一直以来,我们将刑罚视为犯罪的必然结果,但实际上刑罚制裁、威慑犯罪的效果比我们预期的要差得多。 China is known as the legal tradition of “rule the world in a unified way”. In order to safeguard their fundamental economic interests and consolidate their political dominance, the feudal social rulers favored the law as an effective governing tool, especially the more ruler of criminal law. Penalties, with their powerful deterrent, the cruelty of punishment, the power struggle within the ruling party, and their unique role in repressing the insurrection by the ruling class. The concept of “serious punishment” in the practice of law in modern China is still deeply rooted in many people’s conceptions. It has always been our view that punishment is an inevitable consequence of a crime, but in fact penal sanctions and deterrence crimes are far less effective than we expected.