Reforming Laws Regarding Criminal Responsibility of Mentally Disordered Offenders in Thailand: The Disposal of Mentally Disordered offenders under Section 65 of the Criminal Code of Thailand

Abstract

The disposal of mentally disordered offenders according to Section 65 (the insanity defence) of the Criminal Code of Thailand could be found under Section 48, which composites of a hospital order and an absolute discharge. These two measures are a part of measures of safety under the Criminal Code of Thailand and could only be imposed by the court order.

In this regard, the option of the court in Thailand to impose the disposal is very limited. Since it could only choose between if the offender is deemed to be dangerous, thus, the court should impose a hospital order, or if the offender seems not be dangerous, then, the court should make an absolute discharge. Therefore, in a case where the offender might not be that dangerous, but he should have received a treatment, the court will not have other options in between the above two measures. In this sense, sometimes the court might not have the best disposal available. Consequently, the offender might not receive treatment, thus, he might still pose risk to the society, or he might reoffend.

Therefore, this research article aims to propose the new disposal under Thai’s law, in this regard, the reformed disposal should be more various and have more suitable options to be imposed. It will do so by analysing the current law relating to the disposal as well as its problems, and conduct a comparative analysis with the law relating to the disposal in United Kingdom (England and Wales, and Scotland)