Legal Antinomy in Sentencing Parricide Cases Involving Child Offenders: A Normative Analysis of Indonesian Criminal Law

Abstract

Parricide cases committed by children raise complex legal and moral issues within the Indonesian criminal justice system. Moreover, parricide is a serious crime because it violates the right to life, a fundamental human right. On the other hand, underaged children, as perpetrators, fall within a special legal framework that prioritizes the principles of protection and the best interests of children. The meeting of these two concepts gives rise to a legal antinomy, particularly at the sentencing stage, between the demands of retributive justice in criminal law and the rehabilitative goals in juvenile criminal law. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the legal implications and criminal responsibility of children in parricide cases based on the synchronization of Law Number 1 of 2023 concerning the National Criminal Code and Law Number 11 of 2012 concerning the Juvenile Criminal Justice System, and was enriched by a review of both decisions and judicial practices in Indonesia. This study employs a normative legal method with a statutory, conceptual, and case-based approach. The results of the study found that legal accountability for children who commit parricide cannot be standardized due to a lack of norms and differences in standards in assessing the psychological motives of children compared to adult perpetrators. Synchronization of norms can only be achieved through a proportional criminalization approach that balances legal certainty, individual justice, and humanitarian values without neglecting the protection of the right to life as a fundamental legal interest.