Victim protection in Indonesia: Rhetoric,reality,and the functionalisation thesis

Abstract

This article examines the evolution of victim protection in Indonesia and questions whether it represents genuine empowerment or merely serves the procedural needs of the state. It argues that Indonesia’s framework for protecting victims was shaped from the outset by a logic of functionalisation, in which victims are recognised in form but subordinated in substance. Drawing on legislative archives, institutional reports, and budget data, the study traces how the Witness and Victim Protection Law and the creation of the LPSK (Witness and Victim Protection Agency) established victims as instrumental actors whose protection depends on their usefulness to the criminal justice process. Over time, this design has been reinforced through bureaucratic practices that prioritise institutional maintenance over substantive assistance. The article situates Indonesia’s experience within broader patterns of criminal justice modernisation, showing that functionalisation can manifest as a transitional stage, a mature equilibrium, or a persistent structural condition. It concludes that Indonesia remains caught in an unfinished phase of functionalisation, neither advancing towards participatory victim rights nor consolidating an efficient bureaucratic model. The country’s challenge is to transform victim protection from symbolic recognition into an enforceable institutional reality.