Reconstructing Restorative Sentencing Policy in Indonesia's Criminal Justice System: A Victim-Centred Justice Approach

Abstract

The Indonesian criminal justice system remains dominated by a retributive paradigm oriented toward punishing offenders, leaving limited space for restoring victims' rights and interests. This condition creates a gap between the objectives of punishment and the principle of substantive justice for crime victims. This study aims to analyze the urgency of reconstructing penal policy based on a restorative justice approach and to formulate a model for its implementation within Indonesia's criminal justice system oriented toward victim justice. This research employs a normative juridical method using statutory, conceptual, and comparative approaches, analyzed through descriptive-qualitative analysis. The findings indicate that the restorative justice approach is capable of bridging the interests of offenders, victims, and society through dialogical mechanisms, restitution, and the restoration of social relationships damaged by criminal acts. Nevertheless, its implementation remains constrained by the absence of a comprehensive legal framework and the continued dominance of a legalistic paradigm in law enforcement practice. This study concludes that a systemic reformulation of penal policy accommodating restorative justice principles is necessary to achieve balanced justice among the interests of the state, offenders, and victims.