History of the Diversion Concept

The concept of diversion began in the 19th century which was the beginning of the establishment of juvenile justice which aims to ensure that the treatment of children is not equated with the treatment of adults. Diversion is present as a non-penal approach or persuasive action and provides children with the opportunity to correct mistakes.

The presence of diversion, the main goal is that children do not get coercion, torture, and violence in the judicial process until their conviction. The background of the implementation of diversion is as a preventive effort against the negative effects that potentially arise on psychological development if the settlement is carried out through the criminal justice system in general. Diversion has urgency in guaranteeing children's human rights and preventing stigma as naughty children against children in conflict with the law. Therefore, the law can be enforced without torture and violence against children and provide opportunities for children to correct mistakes without going through criminal punishment by the state that has power in a country.

Diversion Objectives

Diversion
Image Illustration / Source: Canva AI

Diversion is a process of diverting children's criminal cases from the criminal justice process to outside the criminal justice process which only applies to children aged 12 years to children who have not reached 18 years as stipulated in Article 1 of the SPPA Law. It is also explained in Article 6 regarding the objectives of diversion, including:

  1. achieving peace between the victim and the Child;
  2. resolving Children's cases outside the judicial process;
  3. preventing Children from deprivation of liberty;
  4. encouraging the community to participate; and e. instilling a sense of responsibility in Children.

In its application, diversion must of course pay attention to 2 formal requirements as stated in Article 7 paragraph (2) of the SPPA Law. The first requirement is that the crime committed by the child is a crime with a threat of imprisonment of under 7 years. The second requirement is that the crime committed by the child is not a repetition of a crime.

The result of holding diversion is an agreement between the two parties. The agreement must obtain the approval of the victim, unless the crime is a violation, a minor crime (a crime punishable by a maximum imprisonment of 3 months), a crime without a victim (crime without victim), or a crime whose value of loss is no more than the local provincial minimum wage.