Child Perpetrators of Motorbike Theft, Victims or Criminals

Children cannot protect themselves, they must be assisted by other parties such as parents, family, community, state and government. Parents, as the first component of child protection efforts, have a central role in realising real child protection, so that children do not become victims of anyone's actions either directly or indirectly. Wishes do not always come true. In fact, there are children who feel unprotected and neglected, so they try to grow and develop in their own way. When the child is in a psychologically unstable position, and then supported by an unhelpful family and social environment, he or she can easily fall into deviant actions. Motorcycle theft committed by children is one of the crimes that occur in Indonesia, including in Kupang City, East Nusa Tenggara. The problem studied is why do children commit motorcycle theft and are they victims or criminals? This research is empirical research, the data used are primary, secondary and tertiary data. The results of the study, the causes of children stealing motorbikes are (1) Internal factors, namely not being able to reject friends' invitations (2) External factors, the influence of relationships and the social environment, lack of attention from parents, economic factors and educational factors. (3) From the point of view of the Law of the Republic of Indonesia Number 23 of 2002 as amended by Law Number 35 of 2014, children are only victims, while from the Criminal Code, children are criminals who deserve to be punished.