A Comparative Analysis of Community Justice in ASEAN countries

Abstract

Community justice is an alternative concept for governments to support improvement in the mainstream justice process. In principle, community justice is composed of four functions, namely, protection, restoration, rehabilitation, and reintegration, although most countries in ASEAN rely mainly on the restorative function. In this article, implementation of the four functions of community justice in ASEAN member countries was reviewed. In terms of the protection function, most countries focus on training in law or establishing protective groups in communities. The restorative function is evidently implemented in many countries including Thailand, Lao PDR, Philippines, and Indonesia, where community justice committees have been established in some communities to solve minor problems.For the rehabilitation function, some countries have established consultative centers as well as applied alternative methods instead of punishment. For the last function, reintegration, most countries emphasize reintegration by having youth do community social work. Therefore, Thailand could enhance the level of community justice by setting more challenging goals, tracking progress and evaluating results. In addition, perception and understanding of community justice in regard to its four functions should be broadly encouraged.