Sentencing Guidance in the Indonesia's Criminal Code Reform Bill: For Whose Benefit?

Abstract

Although Indonesia’s Bill to amend its Criminal Code introduces new and noteworthy concepts of sentencing, this article argues that they fail to address sentencing disparities, as well as the risks of abuse of power and bias in their application. This is due to: conflict between the aims of punishment and sentencing guidelines; multi-interpretable clauses; flaws in the Bill’s conception of mitigating and aggravating factors; and the extensive discretion provided to law enforcers and judges. This article examines the problematic provisions of the Bill by using sentencing theories as well as empirical evidence obtained by interviewing judges and reviewing over a thousand district court decisions.