Abstract:

In China’s criminal law，continual offence is defined as the offence committed by the perpetrator in a certain period of time after he has been meted out twice or more administrative penalties by administrative authorities for committing the offence several times. At present，continual crime is applied to more than a dozen of crimes in China’s criminal law. However，criminal law scholars have yet reached consensus about this phenomenon，and there is few studies on continual crimes. The concept of continual crime is the result of social and economic development and criminal justice practice. There was no clear definition about continual crimes in the first Criminal Code of new China Criminal Law of the People’s Republic of China enacted in 1979. But after that，regulations about this type of crime were seen in a number of specific criminal laws and judicial interpretations；the 1997 version of criminal law absorbed related content of the above mentioned specific criminal laws and judicial interpretations，and the later criminal law amendments and judicial interpretations finally led to a more mature definition about continual crimes. Continual crime constitute a new type of crime mode which differs from consequential crime and potential damage offense due to its social harmfulness of serious violation of law interests and the need for crime prevention in the period of national transformation and due to the greater difficulty in fighting against such kind of crimes.

Key words: continual crime, behavioral offence, consequential offence, administrative penalty, criminal penalty