PUBLISHED : 17 Feb 2024 at 04:00
The Royal Thai Police (RTP) plans to propose to the Justice Ministry a reduction in the age threshold for legal punishment exemption from 15 to 14 years old, in response to a recent uptick in juvenile offences.
RTP spokesman Pol Lt Gen Achayon Kraithong said on Thursday that national police chief Pol Gen Torsak Sukvimol had assigned the RTP to work with related agencies to study the ages of children and adolescents who have committed crimes in recent years.
The development came after two deadly incidents — one involving a 14-year-old boy who shot several people in a Bangkok shopping mall and the other the brutal murder of a woman by a group of youths in Sa Kaeo province.
According to Pol Lt Gen Achayon, there has been an increase in crimes committed by youths aged 10 to 18 in recent years.
There were 11,866 cases of juvenile crime logged from 2016 to 2023. Of those, 1,645 were serious offences, 4,318 were violent crimes, and 5,903 were property crimes.
He said offenders’ ages were trending younger.
As a result, the RTP and related agencies have agreed that the age range of juveniles who can be legally punished should be adjusted, the spokesman said.
He suggested a change to the Penal Code’s Section 74 by lowering the age range from 10-15 years old to 10-14 years old, as well as stricter enforcement of Section 97 Paragraph 2 of the Juvenile and Family Court and Juvenile and Family Case Procedure Act BE 2553.
That would allow the Central Juvenile and Family Court to transfer juvenile cases to regular courts if young offenders in such cases are in the same physical and mental condition as those above 18 years of age.
The RTP will present its proposal to the Ministry of Justice and related organisations, he said.