Juvenile offenders cry for justice

Today is National Children's Day. Joyful activities involving hundreds of thousands of children, maybe millions, are being held across the country in celebration of the special day. However, problems related to underprivileged children still linger. Difficult lives have deprived them of childhood joys. Who are they? What are their problems? The Jakarta Post talks to some of them and discusses the issue with experts.

JAKARTA (JP): Nanang, 9, was selling bottled mineral water in a crowded bus terminal of Medan, North Sumatra, when he was netted in a raid launched by the local security and order office. He was later sent to a police station and detained for one week.

He said he was beaten and his merchandise seized.

"It hurt. I just tried to make some money, but I was arrested and assaulted. And they also took away my merchandise," the boy lamented.

Along with 20 other street children from Medan, Jakarta, Bandung, Cirebon and Yogyakarta, they came to the National Committee of Human Rights in the city earlier this week to complain about maltreatment.

Maruli Pasaribu, 11, also from Medan, said he had served a nine-month jail term for a crime he did not commit.

"I was forced to admit that I had snatched a woman's bag, because the police assaulted me with burning cigarettes," he said.

A network of 12 non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which arranged the meeting with the committee, said more than 40 street children in Medan had been assaulted in the past six months. Other children were not only physically harmed, but sexually abused as well.

I. Sandyawan, director of an NGO called Jakarta Social Institute, estimated that there were about 3,000 street urchins in Jakarta.

These children roam the busy streets, markets, bus terminals and railway stations. Some sell cigarettes, newspapers, food and drinks and others offer their services as shoeshine boys or unskilled labors. There are also children who work at night, making money by finding customers for prostitutes. They are not criminals, but they are often battered because they are considered a disturbance to public order.

"The children just try to make some money secara halal (legally). They do not understand why they are arrested," Sandyawan told The Jakarta Post.

They question why they are treated that way, but they don't get answers. As they feel that they have been treated unfairly, some of them break the law in protest of the unfairness.

Latest data from the Central Bureau of Statistics shows that in 1992 there were 4,720 children aged between 12 and 14 years in Indonesia's prisons, while the number of incarcerated youths aged between 16 and 18 years was 14,046. More than 21 million Indonesians are between 10 and 19 years old. Indonesia has approximately 195 million people.

The number of children who break the law, however, is much more than the number of child convicts because not all of the children who are accused of committing crimes are sent to court. Some are returned to their parents.

"The police have the power to decide how to deal with a case," Deputy Chief Justice for Criminal Affairs Adi Andojo Soetjipto said.

However, there is no clear legal basis to decide which violations can lead a child to court.

"If a child commits a wrongdoing for the first time, the police usually let him or her go. But they might bring the case to court if the accused has done it repeatedly," Soetjipto said.

Juvenile Act

That seems to be the case of Bambang (not his real name), a nine-year-old boy who was arrested in April for stealing a bird worth no more than Rp 4,000. He was accused of having repeatedly committed the theft and was detained by the police. Bambang admitted that he stole the birds, but he said it was the first time he committed such a wrongdoing. As a result, he was beaten "black and blue". After 45 days, he was transferred to a correctional institution, where he shared a cell with several adults. On the seventh day he was sent to court. The judge found him guilty, but ordered that the boy should be returned to his parents.

Soetjipto admits that Indonesia lacks any law to protect the rights of children accused of breaking the law.

Indonesia does not have any juvenile law or juvenile court. Children who are prosecuted are done so under the Criminal Code in district courts. The Criminal Code says that the maximum penalty for a child defendant is one third of the maximum sentence term that can be meted out to adults. If a child is proven guilty of violating a crime which carries the death penalty or a life sentence, the defendant must not be sentenced to more than 15 years.

But at what age can a person be called an adult? This is still ambiguous.

According to the Marriage Act, a male is considered an adult at the age of 18, while a female at 16. The Civil Law says an adult is a person who is 21 years old or older. The Criminal Code does not clearly state the age of an adult, but article 45 of the Criminal Code says that a judge who tries a child who is 16 years old or less may place the child in the custody of its parents, a guardian or in jail. The judge may give the child a certain sentence term but the judge can also rule that the child be incarcerated in a correctional institution for an uncertain period of time. In this case, the length of time spent in jail will depend on the child's behavior.

There is no special trial procedures for children, but the Supreme Court says that hearings must be held in closed sessions and that the judges should not wear robes.

Justice Soetjipto said that even though Indonesia has accepted the principles of the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juveniles Justice (The Beijing Rules), he admitted that the rules have not been fully enforced.

Most child defendants face charges of petty crimes such as theft and fighting. But there have also been some juveniles tried for more serious crimes such as rape. Last year a court in Bangil, an East Java town, found two boys of 13 and 14 years old guilty of raping seven girls of between six and nine years old. The court, however, gave them respectively six months and 18 months jail terms. The defendants, junior high school students, said they sexually abused the girls as they often watched sex videos and movies.

Neglected

The influence of mass media in juvenile crimes is apparent. But movies and TV "hard films" in which sex, violence and crime prevail are not the only factors that can lead to criminal actions.

Being neglected or abused by parents; witnessing violence at an early age on the street or in the house and living in a culture that glamorizes youth violence are among the other conditions cited by Prof. Utami C. Munandar, a professor of psychology.

What make bad kids so bad?

In this heightened atmosphere of violence, normal rules of behavior do not apply. As the traditional social support of home, school and community have fallen away, new role models have taken their place. The only direction these kids receive is from their peers on the street and other role models who engage in criminal conduct.

Munandar identified a number of risk factors in the youth's backgrounds. "It is part of a long mental development process that begins in early childhood. Kids who grow up in families where there is child abuse and maltreatment, spouse abuse and a history of violent behavior learn early to act out physically when they are frustrated or upset."

The professor said that poverty exacerbates the situation. Parents who did not finish high school, who are unemployed or who began their families while they themselves were teenagers are more likely to have delinquent children, Munandar said.

Problems at school also increases the likelihood of a youngster turning to violence. Learning disabilities are common among teens who are involved in crime. She explained that the most effective preventive measures are those which concentrate on eliminating risk factors. For example, students with learning problems could get extra tutoring. Parents who have trouble applying and maintaining discipline at home could get counseling or therapy. "Prevention programs need to start very early, maybe even before elementary school," she said. "Waiting until the teenage years is too late."

Prof. Lili Rilantoro, chairperson of the Indonesian Children's Welfare Foundation said children's problems should be handled in a very particular way. Children are not miniature adults. They have specific characteristics. Therefore, any agency dealing with children is required to fully understand their nature. Their problems must be solved in an integrated way, said Rilantoro.

Although the 1993 State Policy Guidelines, she said, reveals that children and teenagers are the country's most potential assets, until recently the government had yet to establish a specific body or committee to deal solely with children's issues. Currently, there are 16 sections in various ministries, handling children's problems.

She also underlined the need for a Juvenile Act, which is expected to provide child offenders with adequate legal protection against violence, physical and emotional abuses. The absence of such a law has created many problems in the processing of juvenile offenders.

The fact that the government does not have enough specially trained officers to handle juveniles properly makes things worse, she said.

"The government can actually work hand in hand with non- governmental agencies or other private ventures in dealing with juvenile offenders," she explained.

Calling for serious attention to the issue of juvenile offenses, she urged the government to conduct a thorough study in order to create an appropriate policy on this matter. "What is more important is to know children's motivations rather than the offenses," she said.

Dealing with juvenile crimes is hard work for all of us. Let's not forget what Munandar says: "People should not only blame the children if they commit a criminal act. Parents, teachers, the community and the government as well should take responsibility." (raw/sim/02)