Treatment of Children in Conflict with the Law in Indonesia: Conflict Resolution through Musyawarah and the Role of Comm

Abstract

  The purpose of this article is to reveal the practices of treatment of children in conflict with the law in Indonesia, focusing on the conflict resolution process through customary practices of consensus decision making (musyawarah) and the role of the community for achieving it.

  In Indonesia, there is a great number of children (estimated 5,000 at any given time) under the age of 18 who have been accused for petty crimes such as theft and who have been sent to prison. Statistics show, however, that since 2014, the number has been drastically decreasing, having halved in the past two years. Concerning the negative impacts on children such as dropping out of school and the stigma caused by both the criminal justice procedure and subsequent incarceration, such a decrease is very significant. One of the important factors for this dramatic change is that the Juvenile Justice System Act (Law No.11/2012) introduced a “Diversion” policy, which aims to divert the settlement of child related cases from the criminal court to the outside of it. As a requirement for Diversion, the law also adopted “Restorative Justice”, which is a way of settling criminal cases by involving all related people in order to find equitable solutions and not mere retaliation. More importantly, such an approach is found in musyawarah, that is, the customary Indonesian practice of consensus decision making to reach unanimity (mufakat).

  In order to examine the process of musyawarah and the realities of community-based treatment of children in conflict with the law under the new Juvenile Justice System Act, interviews and observation were conducted in Correctional Offices (Balai Pemasyarakatan: BAPAS) located in Central Java province during 2015-2016. For implementing Diversion through musyawarah, the role of BAPAS is important. First of all, the officer of BAPAS (Pembimbing Kemasyarakatan, or PK) conducts Social Research (Penelitian Kemasyarakatan: LITMAS) with a child who commits a crime. Reports of LITMAS consist of legal bases, research methods and information sources, details of delinquent behavior, children’s educational backgrounds, family and social conditions, impact on individuals related to the respective criminal act, expectations for the future, and finally analyses and conclusions. Analysis is from many perspectives such as social, educational, psychological, and philosophical points. At the end of each report, recommendations for the best (i.e., most suitable) treatment for the child are presented. While conducting the social research mentioned above, PK cooperates with other law enforcement officials to hold musyawarah and asks for the participation of stakeholders such as offender, victims and their families, and other third parties.

  In this research, two child related cases are discussed in order to understand how musyawarah can reach an agreement, focusing on the coordination process of interested individuals as well as the decision making process regarding treatment of the child. One is (a) a traffic accident case between neighbors, and the other is (b) a petty theft by three boys in a Central Java village. The findings are following;

 

(1) The role of law enforcement officers in musyawarah

  Law enforcement officers such as police and PK should serve as “neutral” listeners on the one hand, while trying to coordinate both sides’ input for the child’s best interest. For instance, in the case of (a), both the offender’s and victim’s family had distrust of each other from the beginning. PK was eventually able to relieve such tension (View PDF for the rest of the abstract.)