TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The government’s plan to implement tougher law for those who commit sexual crimes against children is the right move that must be immediately materialized.
The number of cases of sexual crime against children is not only rising but recently the perpetrators have also been more sadistic because they also kill their victim(s).
This move is not only expected to give deterrent effects, but more importantly, it will make anyone think one thousand times before committing the crime.
From year to year, the trend of sexual crimes against children is one the rise.
In 2015 until April 2016, the Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) recorded 150 cases.
Every year, the figure rises by almost 100 percent.
We know that such crime does not only cause physical damage to its victims but also psychological effects that the victim will suffer from their whole life.
The last case was experienced by LN, a two-year old child who was found dead on Monday last week. She fell victim to the sexual crime committed by a 26-year-old man, who is the victim’s neighbor di Girimulya village, Cibungbulan, Bogor, West Java.
Previously, the public was shocked by a brutal case of raping and ended with killing to YY, a junior high school student at Rejang Lebong junior high school in Bengkulu by 14 teenagers earlier last month.
Last week, 12 perpetrators were sentenced to 10 years in prison. Two other perpetrators are still at large.
To avoid this incident from happening again and to give just punishment for the perpetrators, President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo on Wednesday last week decided the sexual crime against children is categorized as an extraordinary crime.
With this categorization, the President pledges that he will implement tougher law for the perpetrators until up to 20 years in prison.
In addition, additional sanctions such as castration and social sanction, that is revealing the perpetrator’s identity to the public, will also be imposed.
Jokowi’s promise will be manifested under the government regulation in lieu of law Number 35 of 2014 on Child Protection.
We hope that this government regulation will soon be enacted.
Besides imposing severe punishment, the government regulation should also contain breakthrough mechanism to prove cases of sexual crimes.
So far, it is very rare that judges sentence the perpetrator of a sexual crime with a maximum of up to 15 years in prison as regulated by the laws. On average, the perpetrators are given 4 to 5 years in prison.
Judges also have always adopted conventional ways to prove this crime, that is by demanding medical reports or proof of physical violence, which sometimes are lost because the victims have the courage to report to the police several weeks or several weeks after.
We hope that under this government regulation, if everything is regulated in details, the judges will have the courage to import severe punishment because it is no doubt that a sexual crime has been committed.
Sexual crimes against children must be stopped.
However, in addition to implement tougher law, the roles of parents are also important.
We are aware that the Internet has so much affected our lives.
In this case, parents must give a special attention to it: telling their children which ones they may watch and which ones they may not watch in a wise way to their children.
This role is equally important to the government’s’ move to implement tougher law against the perpetrators of sexual crimes.
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