THAILAND’S EFFORT TO END VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMENWHICH IS ONE FORM OF CRIME MOTIVATED BY GENDERDISCRIMINATION
Santanee Ditsayabut*

Although there are many forms of crime motivated by gender discrimination, I chose toaddress the issue of violence against women as one form of gender-related crime which has
its own complexities. It is considered a real challenge for the criminal justice system inThailand to deal with this type of crime effectively. For example, consider the three cases
below.
The first case concerns a drunk man, the ex-husband, who came to ring the doorbell at
the front gate, yelling for his ex-wife to open the door, and promptly said “don’t try to hidefrom me, you can’t escape anyway”. However, the woman stayed silent with her daughter
behind the closed door. After waiting for a while, she peeked out from the window and saw
that her clothes hanging on the clothesline near the front gate were on fire. She, together withher daughter, hastily extinguished the fire. The results of the investigation revealed that theex-husband had reached out his hand into the house to ignite a cigarette lighter and set fire to
those clothes. The prosecutor indicted the man for the offence of criminal mischief. Even
though, he was convicted, the Court ordered a suspension of his punishment because thevalue of the damaged clothes was trivial.
The second case is related to a defendant who was a university professor. On the night of
the incident, the defendant brutally attacked his wife and hit her with a blunt object until she
died. The Supreme Court, after having examined the case based on the evidence, concluded
that the defendant was a professor who held a doctorate degree, who continuously andcarefully preserved his honor and reputation. His wife was responsible for taking care of theirson by driving him to and from school. On the day of the incident, she was heavily
intoxicated, and did not go to pick up her son but left him with her servant at the school. She
had also failed to pick up the defendant, which was the cause of their quarrel. She confessedto the defendant that she had met with her ex-boyfriend. Even though the defendant was
highly educated, he is just a layman. In his anger, he grabbed the umbrella from his golf bag
to hit his wife, although he could have chosen other lethal weapons. His weapon of choicesuggested that he had no intention to kill his wife. When he saw her lying unresponsive, hethought at first that it was because she was drunk and quickly sent her to the hospital whilecalling his wife’s relatives to come take care of her. Since the defendant was well-educatedand had confessed to his crimes, the court found him guilty but agreed to a reduced sentence,in order to allow the defendant to turn over a new leaf and take care of his son.
In the third case, Soi lived with Ray since she was 17 and he was 23. They have one
child and initially lived happily together. However, Ray gradually started to drink more andmore, spending all his money on alcohol and cigarettes rather than on paying the bills.
Instead, it fell on Soi to support the family by selling meat at the market. She also had to takecare of the house chores without any help from Ray who was constantly drunk. He always*

Provincial Public Prosecutor, Office of the Attorney General of Thailand.

found issues to scream at Soi for and was physically abusive. He would also act intrusive
whenever Soi talked to other people. When Soi managed to save up enough money to build a
new home, Ray would intentionally dirty up the house by walking around with muddy shoes
or using the curtains to wipe his nose and mouth. However, the one thing that weighed her
down the most was having to sleep on the same bed as Ray each night since Ray always stankof alcohol. Whenever Soi refused to sleep with him, Ray would flare-up and start screamingat Soi that she was disgusted by him, kicking her around, or pulling her hair. One time, Ray
woke up in the middle of the night and found that Soi was not next to him. In a fit of anger,
he pulled the quilt down from the bed and started stabbing at it with the knife he kept underthe bed. Ray burnt the ruined quilt the next morning in the Longan field.1
This cycle kept on being repeated for over 23 years. There were many times when Soi
wanted to run away but Ray threatened that he would find her and kill her if she ever did. In
the end, Soi managed to escape but Ray followed her and pled with her to return to him,promising in front of his entire family that he would turn over a new leaf. Ray managed toquit drinking and they were able to live peacefully together for two months until one day they
got into a minor argument. Ray kept Soi in a headlock and held a 3-inch knife to her stomach
while saying that he was going to kill her today and himself afterwards. Soi calmed Ray
down by talking about their child until Ray put away the knife. Soi knew then that either Ray
would have to die or she will die. That evening, Soi went out to buy gloves and a tarp. She
secretly prepared the tarp under the bedsheets before going to bed. Once she was sure that
Ray had fallen asleep, Soi stabbed him with the very knife that Ray had threatened her withearlier in the day. Soi was charged with premeditated murder and received a death sentence
for her crimes. However, since Soi confessed to the crime, the court reduced her sentence to
25 years in prison.
What points do you see from these three different cases?
I. CRIMES MOTIVATED BY GENDER DISCRIMINATION IN THAILAND,
FOCUSING ON VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
The study released by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on theInternational Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women last year on 25 November
2018 revealed that a total of 87,000 women were killed worldwide in 2017, and 58 percentof those female victims were killed at the hands of intimate partners or family members.2 Theregion with the largest number of female victims killed by intimate partners and family
members was Asia (20,000 women), followed by Africa (19,000 women).3
In principle, common elements of all crimes consist of (1) a voluntary act (“actus reus”);(2) culpable intent (“mens rea”); (3) concurrence between the mens rea and the actus reus;and (4) causation of harm. To determine whether the defendant is guilty or not, criminal
justice practitioners would concentrate only on the moment the crimes occurred. Therefore,
most official records collected by the criminal justice organization neglect to include data on
the history or relationship between victim and offender as well as the motivation to commit
the crime if such factors do not relate to an aggravated offence or a mitigated sentence. Thus,
it is arguable whether the main drivers of the crimes are related to gender.
1

Napaporn Hawanon, Testimonies of Battered Women, p.28-45
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Global Study on Homicide 2018 (Vienna, 2018)<https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/global-study-on-homicide.html> accessed 8 Jan. 2019.
3
Ibid.
2

However, in the case of female victims of violence, it is well accepted that gender
discrimination lies at the root of the crimes. According to the statement of the UN Secretary
General Antonio Guterres, “…violence against women and girls is the manifestation of a
profound lack of respect – a failure by men to recognize the inherent equality and dignityof women ... Violence against women is tied to broader issues of power and control in oursocieties. We live in a male-dominated society. Women are made vulnerable to violence
through the multiple ways in which we keep them unequal ...”4 The UNODC Executive
Director Yury Fedotov also expressed his concern that, “While the vast majority of homicide
victims are men, women continue to pay the highest price as a result of gender inequality,
discrimination and negative stereotypes.”5
Violence against women is defined in the Declaration on the Elimination of Violenceagainst Women, and reiterated in various international instruments including the Updated
Model Strategies and Practical Measures on the Elimination of Violence against Women in
the field of Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, to mean any act of gender-based violence
that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to
women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether
occurring in public or in private life.6
In Thailand, the male dominant attitude is still pervasive in society. There is a commonly
known phrase that “A man is the front legs of an elephant” which implies that male always
leads the way. This manifests the problem of structural inequalities of power. It has been
deeply cultivated in Thai culture that a man is the leader of the family whereas a woman shallbehave as a good wife by taking care of the family and the household chores. All these beliefs
make a man feel that he holds power over a woman and can act in any way towards his
female partner in exerting his dominance.
Considering the information revealed by a UNICEF-supported study on Comprehensive
Sexuality Education in 2017, which found that 41 percent of male vocational school students
believed that a husband is entitled to beat up his wife if he found that she is unfaithful tohim,7 male superiority is a problematic attitude that is deeply rooted in society.
According to a study on Thai women’s experiences of and responses to domestic
violence published in the International Journal of Women’s Health in 2018, about 16% of the
1,444 married or cohabiting women faced various forms of violence from their male partner,
often repeatedly in most cases.8 Previously, there was also a survey on domestic
4

United Nations, Antonio Guterres, Remarks on International Day for the Elimination of Violence against
Women (19 November 2018) < https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/speeches/2018-11-19/international-dayelimination-violence-against-women-remarks> accessed 8 Jan. 2019.
5
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), UNODC press release (25 November 2018)<https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/press/releases/2018/November/home--the-most-dangerous-place-for-women-with-majority-of-female-homicide-victims-worldwide-killed-by-partners-or-family--unodc-study-says.html>
accessed 8 Jan. 2019.
6
General Assembly resolution 65/228, annex, para.2.
7
Bangkok Post, Sex education falling short, Unicef finds (1 June 2017)<https://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/1260046/sex-education-falling-short-unicef-finds> accessed 8 Jan.
2019.
8
Dovepress, Thai Women’s experiences of and responses to domestic violence (2018)<https://www.dovepress.com/thai-womens-experiences-of-and-responses-to-domestic-violence-peer-reviewedarticle-IJWH> accessed 8 Jan. 2019.

violence and violence against women that was carried out from January 27 to February 2,
2017 by the Women and Men Progressive Movement Foundation (WMP). There were 1,608
female respondents aged between 17 and 40 from various levels of education and occupations
in Bangkok and its outskirts. The survey revealed that in terms of attitude towards love,
76.8% of respondents said women must have a monogamous relationship, 47.9% said men
are family leaders, 43.3% said wives or girlfriends must obey and pay attention totheir partners.9
II. LEGISLATIVE DEVELOPMENT CONCERNING CRIMES MOTIVATED BY
GENDER DISCRIMINATION
The male dominant attitude and the view that women become the property of theirhusbands can be seen generally even in Thai legislation. The Penal Code of Thailand waspromulgated in 1956 (B.E. 2499). At that time, rape offence was provided in section 276 of
the Penal Code stating that “Whoever has sexual intercourse with a woman, who is not his
wife, against her will, by threatening by any means whatever, by doing any act of violence,by taking advantage of the woman being in the condition of inability to resist, or by causing
the woman to mistake him for the other person, shall be punished with imprisonment for fourto twenty years and a fine of eight thousand to forty thousand Baht”. Thus, the Thai law atthat time allowed a husband to rape his wife with impunity. It sent a message that if a woman
got married, she instantly loses her right to refuse to have sexual intercourse with her
husband.
This section in the Penal Code was amended by the Penal Code Amendment Act (No.19)
B.E. 2550 (2007) with the reason given in the promulgation of the Act that section 276 of thePenal Code B.E. 2499 was drafted based on sexual discrimination and needed to be amended
in order to be in line with the principles of equality between men and women that do notdiscriminate against sexual orientation. The Act removed the previous distinction under
section 276 of the Penal Code which had limited rape to sexual intercourse between a man
and a women who is not his wife and expanded the definition of rape to cover all sexes andall types of sexual penetration. Therefore, at present, marital rape is criminalized in Thailand
and the offender could be sentenced to a term of imprisonment for four to twenty years and afine of eighty thousand baht to four hundred thousand baht. However, if the spouses still
intended to live with each other as a married couple after the crime, the Court may reduce thesentence to any extent below that prescribed by law or may impose any additional condition
to control the behavior of the offender.
Thailand does not have a specific offence for gender-related murder while somecountries have termed an act of killing women because they are women as “femicide” or“feminicide”. Thailand has also not adopted an approach of establishing gender-related
motivation as an aggravating factor for a criminal offence. Crimes motivated by genderdiscrimination in Thailand are treated as normal crimes under the law. However, with theview that domestic violence contains special factors which are different from ordinary casesof physical assault, the enforcement of criminal offences under the Criminal Code alone isinappropriate. Therefore, the Domestic Violence Victim Protection Act of B.E. 2550 (2007)
was promulgated to protect the victim of domestic violence and to punish the perpetrator
9

Bangkok Post, Violence against women in Thailand, a survey (11 Feb. 2017)<https://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/advanced/1198332/violence-against-women-in-thailand-a-survey>
accessed 8 Jan 2019.

while providing various measures for the rehabilitation of the perpetrator. The Act
established a domestic violence offence punishable by a term of imprisonment not exceeding
six months or a fine not exceeding six thousand baht, or both. The Court may order an
offender to pay financial assistance to the victim and direct the offender to refrain from theacts that gave rise to the domestic violence. Another important point is that domestic violence
offences under this law are compoundable offences where the offender and victim cannegotiate and settle the case without going to trial. However, where there is a settlement, theinquiry officer or the Court, whichever the case maybe, shall arrange to have an initial
settlement record made prior to such settlement in order to impose conditions for compliance.
Later, if the offender violates or does not comply with such settlement record, the inquiry
officer or the Court is able to resume the case again.
Table 1 Statistics on violence cases, classified by charge and the relationship between theperpetrator and the victim for fiscal year 2018 (1 Oct 2017- 30 Sept 2018)

Relationship between perpetrator and victim
CommonExlaw
Adopted Family
Spouse spouse partner Children
child
member Dependent

Type of Charge
1. Violence against life,
body, and mind

56

12

28

23

4

33

2

2. Sexual Violence

-

-

-

1

-

1

2

3. Violence against freedom

-

-

1

-

-

-

-

4. Violence against health
5. Social Violence(negligence, abandonment,
etc.)

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

Total

56

12

29

24

4

34

4

Remark: In some cases, there is more than 1 perpetrator or victim
Source: Office of the Attorney General of Thailand

Table 2 Statistics on violence cases, classified by charge. Cases are classified by age andperpetrator’s gender, age and victim’s gender for fiscal year 2018 (1 Oct 2017- 30 Sept 2018)
Amountperpetrator's age
perpetrator's age
victim's age
victim's age
between 0 - 18
above 18 years
between 0 - 18
above 18 years
Type of Charge
years oldold
years old
old
MaleFemaleMale
FemaleMale
Female Male Female
1. Violence against life,
body, and mind
1
138
13
9
10
18
122
2. Sexual Violence
3. Violence against
freedom

1

-

1

-

2

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

4. Violence against health
5. Social Violence(negligence,
abandonment, etc.)

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

Total

2

-

139

13

12

18

122

9

Remark: In some cases, there is more than 1 perpetrator or victim
Source: Office of the Attorney General of Thailand
From the statistics above, we can see that those who are or were intimate partners,
whether a spouse, ex-spouse, or common law partner, make up the majority of people who
commit violence against each other. Moreover, when Table 1 is compared to Table 2, we cansee that in the majority of cases, men are often the perpetrators of violence against women(91.56% of cases were committed by man).
III. CHALLENGES OF THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE RESPONSE TO WOMENEXPERIENCING CRIMES MOTIVATED BY GENDER DISCRIMINATION
A. Women as Victims of Crime
Despite various surveys demonstrating that a high percentage of women around theworld have suffered from violence, cases of violence against women that survive to trial weremuch fewer in number. It is a fact in every country that violence against women isunderreported to authorities. Many factors account for this phenomenon. For female victimsof violence, speaking up and reporting the incident to an official is always the most difficult
first step to take. For many reasons, some women may also face the dilemma of whether theyshould report a crime of violence committed by their intimate partners to the police. The
worst factor is that these female victims do not see any benefit in reporting the crime because
they know that they will not receive the help they really need.
In cases of domestic violence, many police officers still see it as a private issue or aninternal family affair and therefore are reluctant to intervene at the early stages or evenprocess the complaint as is normally done when a case of another nature is reported. There
are also repeat cases wherein the women have been battered by their intimate partners on aregular basis. Whenever they went to report the criminal incident to the police, the police
would only conduct a mediation between the offender and the victim, and drop the complaint.
While the couple may agree to live together again, there will be no happily ever after in mostcases.
Moreover, in the case where a woman’s complaint survives to become an investigatedcase file that gets prosecuted to trial in court, the insensitive process of the criminal justicesystem seems to unintentionally re-victimize the female victim. The process requires thevictims to tell their stories repetitively to different officers in each and every stage of thecriminal procedure, forcing the victims to recall their tragic memories and suffer from suchfeelings over and over again. Some questions about the victims’ behavior or provocation ofcrime can make the victims feel even worse and begin considering that it might be their fault
that the crime happened, not the perpetrator’s.

Considering the fact that violence against women is a silent crime, occurring between
two intimate partners, it is difficult to find another witness besides the victim herself at thecrime scene. If the victims do not want to testify in court because they do not want toconfront the defendant, or if a victim died as a result of the crimes, the Courts would rule that
there was not enough evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendants havecommitted the crimes. Even if the Courts found the defendants guilty of the crimes, thedefendants would be able to make an uncontested claim of provocation or self-defense to
reduce their sentence, as demonstrated in the 2nd case example mentioned earlier. Impunity
for perpetrators usually happens in the case of domestic violence.
B. Women as Criminal Offenders Caused by Being Abused in the Past
There is also the aspect that women who were the victims of domestic violence become
the defendants on trial for the murder of their abusive partners. When women who have beenbrutally abused for a long time fight back, believing that to be the only way they could
protect themselves against the never-ending abuse, most of them are often subject to legal
penalties without being able to receive a reduced sentence by the law. The legal principle ofself-defense often cannot be applied in such cases where the danger of the situation may not
be generally considered as imminent. Moreover, due to having less physical strength, womentend use a weapon in committing their crimes. This is considered an aggravating factor thatwill result in harsher punishment.
In this regard, the Updated Model Strategies and Practical Measures on the Eliminationof Violence against Women in the field of Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice urges theMember States to ensure that claims of self-defense by women who have been victims ofviolence, particularly in cases of battered woman syndrome, are taken into account ininvestigations, prosecutions and sentences against them. Moreover, psychologists confirmedthat the mental state of women who were repeatedly traumatized by their loved one isdifferent from women who have never undergone such experiences. Nevertheless, in practice,
the way in which criminal justice officers apply the concept of self-defense in the case ofpreviously abused female offenders does not differ from the general standard in other cases.
This is similar to the scenario in case number 3 where Soi, who had patiently enduredyears of abuse, decided to do something to protect her life. Nobody in the criminal justicesystem had paid attention or even asked about her motivation for killing Ray. The question
remains as to whether or not what Soi had experienced for almost 23 years before the day that
she murdered Ray matters in the eye of the criminal justice system. Her case did not evenqualify for a claim of self-defence, necessity or even provocation to help mitigate thesentence.
IV. THAILAND’S INTEGRATED EFFORTS TO OVERCOME THE CHALLENGES
A. Legislation
Even though the substantive law of Thailand is quite comprehensive to criminalize allacts of violence against women, gender-insensitive judicial process is another challenge forthe effective prosecution and punishment of perpetrators of violence against women. There is
still room for improvement in the procedural law of Thailand regarding the procedures ininvestigating the case, collecting the evidence, as well as admitting evidence in court.
Currently, the Office of the Attorney General is considering proposing an amendment to the
Criminal Procedure Code of Thailand so that in cases of sexuality-related offenses, theinquiry officer shall arrange an appropriate examination place for the female victim/witness

and shall prepare an image and voice recorder for recording such examinations and they shallbe used as admissible evidence in court. This proposed amendment is in line with theUpdated Model Strategies and Practical Measures on the Elimination of Violence against
Women in the field of Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, Section 15 ( c), according towhich Member States are urged to update their criminal procedures to ensure that womensubjected to violence are enabled to testify in criminal proceedings through adequate
measures that facilitate such testimony by protecting privacy, identity and dignity of thewomen; ensure safety during legal proceedings; and avoid “secondary victimization.”10
B. Raising Awareness and Changing Mindsets of People, Especially Law Enforcement
When cases of domestic abuse, sexual assault, and rape against women are reported,
many times we will hear victim-blaming criticism such as she dressed or expressed herself
inappropriately, the place she went was isolated, the job she had was misleading, etc., which
has the tendency to place the blame for the crime on the victim rather than the perpetrator.
Elimination of violence against women requires true understanding of the issues and the rightmindset of people in the criminal justice system. Referring to the first case recounted frommy experiences with prosecution work, the reason given by the trial court to reduce thesentence and to suspend the punishment imposed on a defendant shows that the Court did notunderstand the psychological impact inflicted on the woman caused by the defendant who
was her ex-husband. This psychological damage is huge and cannot be compensated quickly.
That is why the Court considered only the monetary value of the damage. Cases like this are
not unusual. Therefore, no matter how good the law is, if law enforcement does notunderstand the deeply rooted issue of power inequality between men and women, and havethe correct attitude towards gender discrimination, it is impossible to effectively enforce thelaw.
Thailand has been actively campaigning to raise awareness to end violence against
women since 2008 when Her Royal Highness Princess Bajrakitiyabha Mahidol graciously
accepted the position of Goodwill Ambassador for the Say No to Violence against Women
initiative in Thailand. In 2010, under the leadership of Her Royal Highness Princess
Bajrakitiyabha Mahidol, 622,189 actions taken by Thai individuals to end violence against
women were recorded as part of the UN Secretary General Campaign, UNITE to End
Violence against Women. Since 2012, the Office of the Attorney General has joined handswith the Police Cadet Academy in organizing a training workshop for young police cadets on
the nature, extent, and seriousness of violence-against-women crimes and how the police
have played a crucial role to end this problem. With the belief that such training would help
shape the mindsets of those who will become police officers in the near future, such training
has been organized annually until present. The Office of the Attorney General also conducts
regular trainings and workshops for prosecutors at various levels on the issue of violenceagainst women.
C. Providing a Mechanism for Access to Justice
It is undeniable that insufficient access to justice is the main obstacle to the effective
protection of the victim and punishment of the offender. In order to begin the legal process,the first stage that female victims of violence usually must undergo is to report their cases tothe police. Unfortunately, this simple process appears to be very difficult for the victims who
have been frightened for a long time and who question whether the justice system can help
them live better lives without violence or whether they can even reach the justice system at
10General Assembly resolution 65/228, annex, para. 15 (c)all. The information regarding what they will be facing upon entering the world of thecriminal justice system, what rights they have under the law, and what will happen with theirchildren, etc., are necessary for female victims to make an informed decision throughout theprocess.
We currently live in a world of technological advances. We talk about many disruptive
technologies that change the way we live our daily lives. It might be time to think ofinnovating the justice system in order to contribute to a safe environment for female victims
to feel more comfortable in coming forward. In Thailand, there is an effort to use Artificial
Intelligence (AI) to compliment the conventional way to access justice. The development of
AI Chat bot project, called “Police Noi”, which means little police is one interesting example.
Police Noi is a computer program that was designed to give friendly answers to questions
relating to violence against women in all aspects, ranging from medical treatment topreliminary legal counselling and includes enabling contact with various related agencies
from which help can be sought. Without having to come face to face with an unknown
person, the victims of violence can talk and ask any questions including about the legal
process and its consequences before making a decision whether to report the case to thepolice. Moreover, the possibility that AI Chat bot can communicate with people throughLINE and Facebook allows people to interact with Police Noi in a way that is similar tocommunicating with a real person. Therefore, Police Noi also serves as a lively platform thatfemale victims can talk to and tell stories to without fear of getting judgmental responses
from the neutral AI. This is one instance where technology can overcome the inequalities orforms of discrimination that women face in accessing the justice system. This is in line withthe target of Sustainable Development Goal 16, which aims to provide equal access to justicefor all.
Violence against women is not an emerging crime but a crime that occurs in conjunction
with the deeply rooted unequal power relations between men and women. Discriminatory
attitudes of people in society as well as law enforcement officers cannot be changed over ashort period of time. However, if we start doing whatever we can to end this gender-bias
motivated violence from today, future women all over the world can surely enjoy their lives
without violence.