Is criminal fine in economic legislations effective? Evidence from Indonesia

Abstract

This study aims to examine the legislation and execution of fines weight formulation and alternative sanctions for economic crimes offenders using doctrinal and empirical legal research. The results showed that the Economic Laws for natural persons set fines ranging from IDR 5–200 billion. Corporations have unequal fine patterns, hence the maximum fine weight for individuals and corporations violated the principle of punishment proportionality. The implemented fine weight does not follow the rules and is similar for individual and corporate prisoners without adapting the perpetrator’s characteristics and offenses. As a result, fine execution by the public prosecutor was ineffective because inmates prefer to serve short prison sentences than pay state treasury fines. The convicts did not pay the fines and preferred a prison sentence for various reasons ranging from the large fines to economic consideration. Hence, the rules of the fine should focus on the convict’s possibility to pay imposed fines executed by the public prosecutor and consider the nature of the perpetrators and offenses.