ABSTRACT
In the course of China's development of the rule of law in criminal justice, numerous legislative, judicial and theoretical resources have been devoted to the issue of criminalization, depriving consistently the latter of due attention. It is a natural embodiment of the substantive rule of law that acts with inadequate constituent elements or that are not illegal or culpable should not be treated as crimes. The extremely low rate of acquittal casts light upon the status quo of China's judicial practice that emphasizes criminalization over decriminalization and is related to the fact that the judicial authorities at all levels in China take the "acquittal rate" as an assessment indicator. At present, the extremely low rate of acquittal has started to arouse vigilance among the theoretical and judicial practice circles of criminal law, where the majority believes that the sentence of not guilty is mainly dissolved by criminal procedures.
