The Significance of Financial Punishment on Corruptors as An Effort to Recover State Losses

Abstract

This study aims to reveal (1) the significance of financial punishment for perpetrators of corruption act as an effort to recover the state losses; and (2) the obstacles of the realization. The eradication of corruption is accompanied by the failure to repay the state’s losses because the sanctioned means are oriented towards conventional crimes. The state is increasingly losing money because the mode and scale of corruption is growing. On the other hand, the problem can only be solved through conventional mechanisms. A reform on financial criminal is necessary because it has an objective orientation to restore state losses caused by corruption. It also faces obstacles that pose challenges to the realization of the financial crime. This study is a sociolegal study. It combines empirical and normative studies. The results show at least two important points. Firstly, the need for financial penalties for perpetrators of corruption acts as an effort to recover state losses. It is because of two factors: (1) ineffective conventional crimes in recovering state losses and (2) the potential of deterrent effect of the financial charge. Secondly, there are obstacles on the realization of financial charge for perpetrators of corruption as an effort to recover the state losses. They are, among others, (1) the inability of sanctions to return state losses; (2) government intervention in eradicating corruption; and (3) the community satisfaction index that uses corporal punishment, not the return of state losses.