Material Requirements for The Police’s Retorative Justice Mechanism Under Law No. 20 of 2025 of The Code of Criminal Procedure

Abstract

Restorative justice in Indonesia is no longer just an alternative to resolving cases, but has become part of the debate on the reform of the criminal procedure law, especially at the stage of police investigations, the impulse in this direction mostly arises from dissatisfaction with the retributive paradigm that prioritizes punishment over the recovery of victims or the improvement of disturbed social relations. This article examines the material requirements and mechanisms of restorative justice by the police based on Law Number 20 of 2025 concerning the Criminal Code, taking into account the urgency of its implementation, dynamics in the field, as well as normative formulations and obstacles to their implementation, using normative juridical methods with legal and conceptual approaches sourced from scientific journals, books, policy documents, and media reports. Normatively, restorative justice at the police level must be treated as a selective mechanism, not a default path that requires the fulfillment of the interests of the victim, the consent of the parties, the character of the crime that does not cause broad social impacts, recognition and recovery from the perpetrator, and the certainty that the termination of the case does not conflict with the public interest or the principles of due process of law. However, in practice, implementation standards still vary between regions, dependence on the discretion of the apparatus is quite high, access is uneven, and it is not uncommon for this approach to be used just to reduce the number of cases; As long as operational guidelines remain vague, oversight is weak, and documentation is minimal, restorative justice risks changing its function from a justice mechanism to an administrative shortcut that ignores substantive justice