Reconstructing Sextortion Enforcement in Indonesia Through a Multi-Stakeholder Criminal Law Approach

Abstract

Sextortion, coercion effected by threatening to disseminate a victim’s intimate content, has outgrown the criminal law categories presently used to address it in Indonesia. This study analyses the criminal law construction of sextortion following the entry into force of the National Criminal Code, identifies the obstacles to its enforcement, and formulates a multi-stakeholder enforcement model. It is normative legal research employing statutory, conceptual and case approaches. The study finds that sextortion is legally reachable through several provisions, yet none captures the offence in its entirety. The extortion provision of the National Criminal Code requires physical violence; the coercion provisions of that Code and of the Indonesian law on electronic information and transactions confine the object of coercion to goods and debts, reaching only financially motivated conduct; the pornography provisions protect public decency rather than sexual autonomy and risk capturing the victim; and only the Indonesian law on sexual violence crimes accommodates a sexual purpose. The consequence is regulatory fragmentation, an inconsistent complaint-offence regime, disproportionate sentencing thresholds and a persistent risk of victim criminalisation. The obstacles extend beyond the norms to uneven digital forensic capacity, the absence of any inter institutional coordination protocol, and a legal culture of victim blaming which suppresses reporting. The study proposes a multi-stakeholder enforcement model allocating authority among law enforcement agencies, victim protection institutions, electronic system operators, civil society, academia and communities across eight procedural stages, and concludes that effective enforcement requires the integration of substantive criminal law, institutional coordination, digital evidence capacity, victim protection and platform accountability.