Legal Disharmony in The Protection of Child Victims of Sexual Violence in Indonesia: A Dignified Justice Perspective

Abstract

Sexual violence against children constitutes a grave violation of human rights and human dignity, requiring a criminal law response that is not merely repressive but also protective and restorative. Although Indonesia has enacted various legal instruments governing the protection of child victims of sexual violence including the Child Protection Act, the Sexual Violence Crimes Act, the former Criminal Code, and the 2023 National Criminal Code, empirical data over the past five years indicate that regulatory expansion has not been accompanied by effective victim protection and recovery. This study aims to critically analyze the normative disharmony within legal frameworks governing the protection of child victims of sexual violence, examine its implications for the effectiveness of victim recovery within criminal justice practice, and formulate a model for harmonizing child criminal law based on the paradigm of Dignified Justice oriented toward victim-centered justice. Employing a critical normative legal research method enriched with secondary empirical data, this study applies statutory, conceptual, and limited comparative approaches, using qualitative normative-argumentative analysis of legislation, court decisions, reports from child protection institutions, and internationally reputable literature from the past five years. The findings reveal three major structural problems: the disharmony in definitions of sexual violence reflecting a paradigm conflict between retributive–moralistic and victim-rights-based approaches; inconsistencies in sentencing systems that undermine legal certainty and equality before the law; and the absence of binding obligations for victim recovery, resulting in a criminal law framework that is effectively pseudo–victim-centered. This study concludes that reform of child criminal law in Indonesia must be directed toward paradigmatic harmonization that places victim recovery and the recognition of human dignity as the primary objectives of criminal law, enabling the criminal justice system to deliver substantive justice and sustainable protection for child victims of sexual violence.