หนัาหลัก
 
Original article
Title Miscarriages of justice in Thailand
Author Waiphot Kulachai
Page 1-12

Abstract

This article would like to reflect the situation of miscarriages in the Thai justice system, antecedents of scapegoat, impact on the scapegoat, human rights and scapegoat, reviving the scapegoat cases, compensation for scapegoat, and to provide policy recommendation for policy makers. The author found that the problem of "scapegoats" in the Thai justice system has been deeply rooted in Thai society for a long time. The antecedents of this problem are associated with the police, the prosecutors, and the courts. This problem has a severe impact on the mental, physical, economic, and social conditions of the "scapegoats". Although the law provides basic principles for protecting the rights of the accused but in practice there are still problems causing the accused or "scapegoats" to not be treated and protected by the government with equality, fairly, accurately, and speedy in accordance with the established principles. Even though the Resurrect Criminal Case for Reconsideration Act B.E. 2526 allows the “scapegoats” to request for a resurrect but the scapegoats have to confront with several practical problems. In addition, the compensation provided by the government in accordance with the law is quite small. Therefore, government agencies should turn their attention to this problem urgently and the people who are involved in driving the policy, should pay more attention to this problem and put this as an urgent agenda to reform  the Thai justice system.

Keywords: miscarriages, criminal justice, criminology

Introduction

Miscarriages of justice have always appeared in Thai society. The innocent, who is not the real culprit as alleged, is known as “scapegoat” in the criminal justice. The scapegoat or innocent person was punished because of the shortcoming of the justice process regardless of whether the defect in the work of a police officer, prosecutor, or court. Thaweesak (2017) defined miscarriage in justice as an arrest and conviction of people who have not actually committed the crime. He also stated that miscarriages of justice in Thailand have been dramatically increased. This results in a social problem that people in society and related parties must come together to deal with the said issue. According to Nobles and Schiff (2017), the arrest of innocent people is basic information in evaluating criminal investigations, evidence search, the process of justice, conviction, and appeal which are reflections of morality and ethics in the judicial process.

The above problems have a profound effect on the Thai family because most people who are "scapegoat" is a group of people who lack the bargaining power, lack of ability and potential for access to justice. Moreover, their social and economic status is an important factor leading to being exploited by others who have more bargaining power, including being exploited by officials who aim to find benefits for themselves. The government agencies also give little importance to solve the problem for the disadvantaged social groups. Hence, the innocents have lost their freedom. They received mental trauma and became the target of attack in the society, faced economic losses due to expenditures arising from the fight in the judicial process, suffered from imprisonment in correctional facilities, had limit opportunities to take care of the family, and confronted with problems of separation and relationships between family members. Their families could not deal with financial problems due to lack of family leaders causing some families to live in poor conditions, have quality of life that is substandard. The child is not educated, and family members who are sick cannot access good standardized medical services. Miscarriages of justice is, therefore, an issue that reflects the failure of the Thai justice process (Kecharoen & Phumpetch, 2017).

The said problems are caused by various factors. The root cause of the miscarriages of justice is partly a result of discrimination by officials in government agencies. The power of "money" gives some groups more privileges than others in the society as we can see from the social issues that appear through the mainstream media and social media. This reflects discrimination against people of different socioeconomic status. The offense of the same charge, each suspect is treated differently from government officials including receiving different penalties. These incidents reflect the inequality treatment of people which is considered a violation of the fundamental human rights, and clearly against the principles of human rights. How should the government or related sectors share responsibility, and how to compensate those people are issues that must be considered in detail. Although there is a Damages for the Injured Person and Compensation and Expense for the Accused in Criminal Case Act, B.E. 2544 but there are still many practical problems that cause delayed compensation to victims of "scapegoats". Furthermore, these people were compensated in term of monetary compensation only (Cross Cultural Foundation, 2015).

The "scapegoat" in the judicial process is therefore a problem that reflects the efficiency and accuracy of the justice process. This may be caused by many factors such as transparency, dark influence, including lack of prudence in screening the case (Thaweesak, 2017). These causes the court to make judgments based on the evidence appearing in the case file leading to the punishment of innocent people. This article therefore would like to reflect the situation of miscarriages in the Thai justice. In this article, the term "scapegoat in the judicial process” is used to make it easier to communicate meaning and understanding of miscarriages. In addition, the author will analyze the root causes of becoming scapegoats, the impacts on the scapegoat, human rights issues and abuse of scapegoats, remedies and solutions to problems as well as providing policy suggestions to those involved, including those who have a role in determining the country's justice administration policy.


 
RDI Suan Dusit Rajabhat University.
295 Ratchasima Road, Dusit, Bangkok 10300 Tel 0-2244-5280-2 Fax 0-2668-7460

© Copyright 2013 www.research.dusit.ac.th