Crime and Punishment in Indonesia

Indonesia’s criminal law system faces major challenges. Despite the country’s transition to democracy, both the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code are badly out of date, the former only superficially changed since colonial times and the latter remaining as it was under Soeharto’s authoritarian New Order regime.

Law enforcement officers and judges are widely seen as corrupt or incompetent, and new laws, including new Islamic laws passed at the regional level, often contradict the C...