Rehabilitation and Restorative Sentencing for Sexual Offenders against Child Victims in the Malaysian Criminal Justice System

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-785-9_20How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Child; Criminal Law; Rehabilitation; Sentencing

Abstract

The severity of sexual crimes perpetrated against children is alarming in numerous Asian countries, including Malaysia. The increasing number of sexual crime cases involving child victims must be addressed swiftly to safeguard both children and society. However, the current approach to sentencing sexual offenders against child victims in Malaysia is insufficient compared to international standards, particularly the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for Non-Custodial Measures (The Tokyo Rules). General Principle No. 1.5 of the Tokyo Rules says that the country needs to come up with other legal solutions that align with human rights principles and emphasise rehabilitation and restorative sentencing. The Tokyo Rules must be respected to ensure a balanced and effective justice system. This study asserts that criminal rehabilitation and restorative sentencing should complement existing sentencing measures, such as imprisonment, to enhance offender accountability and reduce recidivism. While the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017 (Act 792) in Malaysia specifies offences and penalties for sexual crimes involving child victims, its preventive and deterrent measures are arguably inadequate. Thus, this study argues for a comprehensive legal reform incorporating both rehabilitation and restorative sentencing as a new approach to addressing sexual offences against children. In conclusion, integrating restorative sentencing and rehabilitation into the criminal justice system has the potential to transform offenders, fostering their reintegration into society while ensuring justice for child victims.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Muhammad Harieth Zaini
AU  - Muhamad Sayuti Hassan
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/07
TI  - Rehabilitation and Restorative Sentencing for Sexual Offenders against Child Victims in the Malaysian Criminal Justice System
BT  - Proceedings of the UUM 13th International Legal Conference 2025 (UUMILC 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 282
EP  - 295
SN  - 2667-128X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-785-9_20
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-785-9_20
ID  - Zaini2026
ER  -