Legal Services: Strategies for Handling Children in Conflict with the Law Through the Mbolo Ra Dampa Local Wisdom-Based Restorative Justice House

Abstract

Based on accumulated data from Bima City’s Women's Empowerment and Child Protection Service, Child Protection Services, and Women and Children's Service Unit, it was shown that in 2021, there were 149 cases of children in conflict with the law. In 2022, there were 170 cases; in 2023, there were 159 cases; in 2024, there were 209 cases; and in 2025, there were 122 cases involving children facing legal problems as perpetrators, victims and witnesses. This study aims to produce and integrate legal services for children in conflict with the law through restorative justice based on the Mbolo Ra Dampa local wisdom. This was a type of empirical legal research, where the authors analyzed facts which were obtained from interviews and direct observation, using legislative, conceptual, and sociological approaches. Then, the authors analyzed primary legal materials (namely, relevant legal policies) and secondary legal materials (namely, legal publications, including books, legal dictionaries, and legal journals). The authors collected data through observation, field surveys, and interviews. Then, the authors conducted documentation, forum group discussion and additional data processing, data analysis through investigation, data verification, and data reduction. Lastly, the authors presented data related to legal services for handling children in conflict with the law through restorative justice based on the Mbolo Ra Dampa local wisdom. Findings indicate that, first, legal services in handling children in conflict with the law through restorative justice houses based on the Mbolo Ra Dampa local wisdom are centered in each sub-district in Bima City. This is a very strong tradition in the Bima community, as it maximizes the role of community leaders in each sub-district, making the sub-district government act as a facilitator to resolve children's problems. However, it still involves Child Protection Services, Women and Children's Service Unit, Women's Empowerment and Child Protection Service, and other institutions that support the resolution of this issue using a restorative justice approach. Second, the integration of the restorative justice approach based on the Mbolo Ra Dampa local wisdom of Bima citizens shows that restorative justice resolves the issue of children in conflict with the law by combining local wisdom traditions and restorative justice as an effort to create deliberation and consensus. However, it still encounters very serious obstacles, as the model of handling children in conflict with the law has not been optimally integrated, because the data on handling children in conflict with the law has not been properly recorded at the Bima City Women's Empowerment and Child Protection Service, as the central legal service for children in conflict with the law in Bima City.