Restorative Justice Approach in the Settlement of Children’s Cases in Indonesia

Abstract

Restorative justice is a way to resolve criminal cases involving the community, victims, and perpetrators of crime to achieve justice for all parties so that it is expected to create the same conditions as before the crime and prevent further crime. However, implementation is often overlooked in children who commit crimes. The research method used in this study is the normative legal research method with the legislation approach and conceptual approach. This research shows the case of children before the law (ABH) brought in the judicial process must always prioritize the principle of the best interests of children, and the process of punishment is a last resort. Cases can be resolved through informal mechanisms based on standard guidelines. This form of informal handling can be done by diversion through a mediation process facilitated by law enforcement at every level to achieve restorative justice through diversion. Thus, the core of restorative justice is healing, moral learning, community participation and attention, dialogue, forgiveness, responsibility and making changes, all of which are guidelines for the recovery process in the perspective of restorative justice.

The Enforcement of Restorative Justice in Indonesian Criminal Law

“…The problem of mediation in criminal cases, has already been on discussed at the international level, which was known as The 9th The background of his thinking was associated with ideas of criminal law renewal (penal reform), and there was a problem associated with pragmatism (Sirait & Cahyaningtyas 2019). Background ideas of "penal reform" among other ideas were the victim safeguarding, the idea of harmonization, the idea of restorative justice, the idea of overcoming the rigidity/formalities in the existing system, the concept of avoiding the adverse effects of the criminal justice system, and penal system that exists today, especially in the search for alternatives to imprisonment as an alternative to imprisonment/alternative to custody and so on.…”

“…Ironically, almost all crimes handled by the Indonesian criminal justice system always end up in prison (Sirait & Cahyaningtyas 2019). However, prison is might not be the best solution in solving crime problems, especially crime where "damage" caused to victims and the community can still be restored so that conditions that have been "damaged" can be returned to its original state.…”