Community Services as an Alternative Forms of Penalty for Children in the Renewal of Children in Indonesia Criminal

Abstract

Criminal sentencing of a juvenile offender should be adjusted to the special need and requirement of a juvenile or a minor, because despite being an offender, s/he is still a child, hopefully with a future and hence s/he has a special characteristic that is inherent to him/her that is not found in an adult offender. The recent development in criminal law reveals a growing international trend to seek an alternative to replace the more common method of incarceration, specifically in cases involving juvenile offender. This conviction stemmed from the notion that the concept of imprisonment is getting less popular, whether it is viewed from humane consideration, sentencing philosophy or economic consideration. Community service order (CSO) is one of the alternatives to incarceration to a juvenile offender that is non-institutionalized and it is recommended in an international instrument the United Nation Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice (Beijing Rules).  The concept of community service sentencing for juvenile offender has been entered into the draft reform of the Indonesian Criminal Code (RKUHP) and the Law for Juvenile Criminal Procedure System (UU Sistem Peradilan Pidana Anak). This study is a judicial normative research supported by a field research in the form of interviews with competent respondents. From the result of the study, the author concludes that community service is highly supportive to the objectives of sentencing and education of a juvenile offender both from the perspective of sentencing in general or sentencing objectives that are integrative in nature. The relevance between community service sentencing and the juvenile criminal system reform may be interpreted that community service sentencing is perceived within the context of a policy on managing criminal offenders; therefore, community service sentencing may play its intended role as a social-control instrument to support the policy of managing criminal acts committed by juveniles in Indonesia. The existing draft on community service sentencing as contained in the draft for the Law for Juvenile Criminal Procedure System (UU SPP Anak) still needs to be improved since it is still too broad in nature. Community service sentencing has the prospect and possibility to be applied in Indonesia’s juvenile criminal court, considering the huge benefits that may be reaped from such application.

Keywords: Community service sentencing, Juvenile Criminal System Reform, the Law for Juvenile Criminal Procedure System (UU SPP Anak).