Economic-Related Reasons as a Motive to Avoid Sanction during Pandemic: Judges’ Perspectives on Different Sentences on Crimes

Abstract

The economic sector has been severely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. Many criminals used this notion to avoid being severely sentenced. This study was performed to examine different judges’ perspectives on the handling of criminal cases with economic motives during the Covid-19 pandemic. This qualitative study regarded the data that were collected through telephone interviews using the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) as the instrument. The findings show that judges have different perspectives on the imposing of punishment to criminals who used economic-related excuses. However, this phenomenon is difficult to control. In order to maintain the professionalism of the judges, judges should be more active in the trial process and able to identify the obstacles they face, such as the protracted legal process due to the potential for transmission of the coronavirus in the trial and communication difficulties due to the low quality of the internet network in online trials. Judges are required to keep their independency in making decisions for criminals regardless the criminal’s motives by considering social changes that occur in society comprehensively. This attitude would make the society getting impressed by the performance of the judges.