Main Article Content
Abstract
Background: Contemporary criminal justice systems are increasingly challenged to balance punitive measures with rehabilitative goals, particularly in culturally diverse and legally pluralistic societies. While secular models, such as those found in Norway, emphasize rights-based rehabilitation, Islamic-majority countries like Malaysia and Indonesia navigate complex intersections between religious ethics and secular legal frameworks.
Purpose: This study aims to investigate how secular and Islamic approaches to rehabilitative justice are operationalized across three jurisdictions—Norway, Malaysia, and Indonesia—and to identify pathways for integrating ethical, institutional, and empirical insights into a cohesive, context-sensitive reform model
Methods: Employing a qualitative-comparative design, the research combines normative legal analysis, socio-legal investigation, and thematic content analysis. Primary sources include national legal documents, prison policies, international reports, and expert interviews
Results: Findings reveal that Norway’s secular rehabilitative system achieves strong empirical outcomes through individualized, rights-based practices; Malaysia partially integrates Islamic ethical principles into correctional programs with measurable, though uneven, success; while Indonesia’s fragmented legal system relies largely on grassroots religious initiatives without formal institutional integration, resulting in persistently high recidivism
Implication: The study contributes both theoretically and practically by demonstrating that ethical pluralism—rather than creating fragmentation—can enrich rehabilitative justice if systematically integrated. For policymakers, the findings suggest the need to embed both secular human rights and religious ethical commitments into penal reform strategies, particularly in Muslim-majority and legally hybrid societies.
Originality: This article advances the literature by offering one of the few cross-jurisdictional, empirically grounded comparative studies that bridge secular and Islamic rehabilitative frameworks, challenging binary understandings and proposing an integrative, ethically robust model for justice reform
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References
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References
Abou El Fadl, K. (2014). Reasoning with God: Reclaiming Shari‘ah in the modern age. Rowman & Littlefield.
Bazemore, G., & Umbreit, M. (1995). Rethinking the sanctioning function in juvenile court: Retributive or restorative responses to youth crime. Crime & Delinquency, 41(3), 296–316. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011128795041003003
Butt, S. (2010). Regional autonomy and legal disorder: The proliferation of local laws in Indonesia. Sydney Law Review, 32(2), 177–191.
Cammack, M. (2010). Indonesia's religious courts: Moderating Islamic family law. The American Journal of Comparative Law, 58(4), 802–830. https://doi.org/10.5131/ajcl.2010.0009
Cavadino, M., & Dignan, J. (2006). Penal systems: A comparative approach. Sage Publications.
Direktorat Jenderal Pemasyarakatan. (2025). Laporan internal pemasyarakatan Indonesia. Jakarta: Kementerian Hukum dan Hak Asasi Manusia Republik Indonesia.
Durkheim, É. (1984). The division of labor in society. Free Press.
Garland, D. (2018). The culture of control: Crime and social order in contemporary society. University of Chicago Press.
Ibn Ashur, M. T. (2006). Treatise on Maqāṣid al-Sharī‘ah. IIIT.
Jacobson, J., Heard, C., & Fair, H. (2017). Prison: Evidence of its use and over-use from around the world. Institute for Criminal Policy Research.
Johnsen, B. (2019). Norway: The prison that works. In Y. Jewkes, B. Crewe, & J. Bennett (Eds.), Handbook on prisons (2nd ed., pp. 761–778). Routledge.
Kementerian Dalam Negeri Malaysia. (2025). Laporan pelaksanaan program pemulihan rohani di lembaga pemasyarakatan. Putrajaya: Jabatan Penjara Malaysia.
Kementerian Hukum dan Hak Asasi Manusia Republik Indonesia. (2025, April 10). Wawancara dengan Direktur Pemasyarakatan. [Unpublished interview].
Kementerian Hukum dan Hak Asasi Manusia Republik Indonesia. (2025, April 15). Wawancara dengan aktivis LSM hak perempuan. [Unpublished interview].
Kementerian Hukum dan Hak Asasi Manusia Republik Indonesia. (2025, April 20). Wawancara dengan akademisi hukum syariah. [Unpublished interview].
Kamali, M. H. (2019). Shari‘ah law: An introduction. Oneworld Publications.
Lappi-Seppälä, T. (2007). Penal policy in Scandinavia. In M. Tonry (Ed.), Crime and justice in Scandinavia (Vol. 36, pp. 217–295). University of Chicago Press.
Lappi-Seppälä, T., & Tonry, M. (2011). Crime, criminal justice, and criminology in the Nordic countries. Crime and Justice, 40(1), 1–32. https://doi.org/10.1086/659965
Lindsey, T., & Nicholson, P. (2016). Drugs law and practice in Southeast Asia. Hart Publishing.
Maruna, S., & LeBel, T. (2010). The desistance paradigm in correctional practice: From programs to lives. In F. McNeill, P. Raynor, & C. Trotter (Eds.), Offender supervision: New directions in theory, research and practice (pp. 65–89). Routledge.
McNeill, F. (2019). Pervasive punishment: Making sense of mass supervision. Emerald Publishing.
Mohammed, N. (2015). Islamic law and the challenges of modernity. Springer.
Phelps, M. S. (2017). Mass probation: Toward a more robust theory of state variation in punishment. Oxford University Press.
Pratt, J. (2008). Scandinavian exceptionalism in an era of penal excess: Part I: The nature and roots of Scandinavian exceptionalism. British Journal of Criminology, 48(2), 119–137. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azm072
Santos, B. de S. (2014). Epistemologies of the South: Justice against epistemicide. Routledge.
Sykes, G. M. (2020). The society of captives: A study of a maximum security prison. Princeton University Press.
Tonry, M. (2019). Doing justice, preventing crime. Oxford University Press.
UNODC. (2023). World crime trends and emerging issues. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
World Prison Brief. (2023). World prison population list (13th ed.). Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research