Reconstruction of Child Protection Law Norms for the Optimization of Restitution for Victims of the Crime of Human Trafficking

Abstract

Children are the most vulnerable entity to become victims of the Crime of Human Trafficking (TPPO), an extraordinary crime that deprives freedom and destroys the future. Although national legal instruments have accommodated the right to restitution for victims, its implementation often ends in empirical failure due to normative defects in the Child Protection Law. This study aims to analyze these systemic weaknesses and formulate ideas for reconstructing legal norms to optimize the fulfillment of restitution. This research using a normative legal research method with statutory and conceptual approaches, this study finds that the paradigm of retributive justice that still dominates positive law has created a loophole of financial impunity for perpetrators through substitute imprisonment (subsidiary punishment). By injecting the theories of Dignified Justice and Restorative Justice, the proposed reconstruction includes the absolute abolition of substitute imprisonment provisions, institutionalization of asset tracing from the initial stage of investigation modeled on the effectiveness of asset confiscation in various jurisdictions, and the application of the reversal of the burden of proof. This normative reconstruction is a necessity to ensure that the law does not merely punish perpetrators but genuinely repairs losses, restores human dignity, and guarantees the future of child victims of exploitation.