NORMATIVE LURIDICAL ANALYSIS OF THE DISMISSAL OF THE PRETRIAL APPLICATION FOR THE DETERMINATION OF A SUSPECT IN THE CRIMINAL ACTS OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE AGAINST CHILDREN IN DECISION NUMBER 15/PID.PRA/2025/PN CBI

Hotnida Suriani Siregar (Universitas Sahid Jakarta)

Jurnal Penelitian Progresif (JPP)
Vol 5 No 2 (2026): MARCH 2026 - AUGUST 2026

Sexual violence against children constitutes a serious structural problem that has driven the strengthening of child protection regulations in Indonesia, including the enactment of Law Number 12 of 2022 on Sexual Violence Crimes (UU TPKS) and Law Number 20 of 2025 on the New Criminal Procedure Code (New KUHAP). This study aims to analyze the normative juridical construction of the lapse of a pretrial petition concerning the designation of a suspect in child sexual violence cases based on Constitutional Court Decision Number 102/PUU-XIII/2015 as reflected in Decision Number 15/Pid.Pra/2025/PN Cbi, and to examine its implications for the legal protection of child victims from an integrative perspective of UU TPKS and the New KUHAP. The method employed is normative legal research utilizing statutory, case, and conceptual approaches, with a descriptive-analytical character and deductive reasoning based on library research. The findings indicate that the lapse of the pretrial petition must adhere to the limitative constitutional standard established in Constitutional Court Decision Number 102/PUU-XIII/2015, whereby a pretrial petition is only constitutionally valid as lapsed upon the actual reading of the indictment in the principal trial proceedings, not merely upon case referral. The New KUHAP codifies this interpretation, thereby eliminating procedural manipulation through artificial case acceleration. The synergy between UU TPKS and the New KUHAP forms a normative ecosystem that positions child victims as legal subjects entitled to protection at every stage of the legal process, including pretrial. A properly applied pretrial lapse actually accelerates the realization of restitution rights and victim recovery. The study concludes that the pretrial lapse doctrine is not an automatic mechanism but a judicial instrument requiring factual verification that must reconcile the principle of due process of law with a victim-centered approach. It is recommended that judges conduct factual verification prior to issuing a lapse ruling and that law enforcement officers refrain from using case referral as a tactical instrument to nullify pretrial petitions.