Section 278: Indecent act by coercion
Statutory text (Thai original)
ผู้ใดกระทำอนาจารแก่บุคคลอายุกว่าสิบห้าปีโดยขู่เข็ญด้วยประการใด ๆ โดยใช้กำลังประทุษร้าย โดยบุคคลนั้นอยู่ในภาวะที่ไม่สามารถขัดขืนได้ หรือโดยทำให้บุคคลนั้นเข้าใจผิดว่าตนเป็นบุคคลอื่น ต้องระวางโทษจำคุกไม่เกินสิบปี หรือปรับไม่เกินสองแสนบาท หรือทั้งจำทั้งปรับ
Verbatim from the Royal Gazette / Office of the Council of State
English translation
Whoever commits an indecent act against a person over fifteen years of age by threat of any kind, by violence, while that person is in a state in which he or she cannot resist, or by causing that person to mistake the offender for another person, shall be liable to imprisonment not exceeding ten years, or a fine not exceeding two hundred thousand baht, or both.
[Paragraphs two, three and four repealed by the Criminal Code Amendment Act (No. 30) B.E. 2568.]
ThaiLawOnline translation, written from the Thai original and verified
Firm annotation
Section 278 is the indecent-act counterpart to the rape offence in Section 276. An indecent act is sexual conduct that falls short of the penetration defined as sexual intercourse in Section 277/4. The elements are an indecent act, against a person over fifteen, committed by one of the same coercive means as Section 276: threat, force, exploitation of an inability to resist, or impersonation. This section protects victims over fifteen; Section 279 covers indecent acts against children not over fifteen. Aggravated results and use of a weapon are dealt with in Section 280, and Section 281 makes the basic offence compoundable in limited circumstances.
Why this matters in practice
The distinction between an indecent act under this section and rape under Section 276 turns on whether penetration as defined in Section 277/4 occurred, and it makes a large difference to penalty exposure. Where the indecent act is committed together with another offence, such as trespass by force, the courts may treat it as a single act violating several provisions and punish under the heaviest one. The basic offence is compoundable only within the narrow limits of Section 281 (not in public, no grievous harm or death). Anyone facing or considering a complaint under this section should consult a Thai lawyer about the correct charge and available defences.
Supreme Court decisions interpreting this section
-
Supreme Court Judgment No. 1689/2566 (2023)
Where an indecent act under Section 278 paragraph one is committed together with trespass by force, it may be treated as a single act constituting several offences, and the offender is punished under the provision carrying the heaviest penalty.
The defendant pleaded guilty. The trial court found the conduct guilty under Section 278 paragraph one and under trespass provisions (Section 365(1) with Sections 362 and 364), treated it as a single act violating several provisions, and imposed punishment under trespass by force as the heaviest provision.
Curated decisions with case numbers verified against the Supreme Court database. English renderings are the firm's editorial translation for study.
Cited in 178 Supreme Court decisions (1960 to 2026)
Selected citing decisions
- Decision 1689/2566 (2023)
- Decision 2535/2565 (2022)
- Decision 8756/2563 (2020)
- Decision 4683/2562 (2019)
- Decision 12983/2558 (2015)
- Decision 15913/2557 (2014)
- Decision 19715/2555 (2012)
- Decision 13642/2555 (2012)
This list is selected automatically, weighted towards judgments that turn on this section rather than ones that merely recite it when passing sentence. It has not yet been reviewed by the firm.
Most often cited alongside
- Section 91 99
- Section 90 71
- Section 276 71
- Section 78 61
- Section 83 49
- Section 284 39
Sections that appear in the same judgments as this one most often. The figure is the number of decisions.
Counted across the firm's corpus of 83,652 Supreme Court decisions, 1921 to 2026. The count is complete; the stated year range trims rare outliers so it describes where the citations actually sit. These figures are computed by us and are not official court statistics. How we count these, and what we measured
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between an indecent act and rape in Thailand?
Rape under Section 276 requires the penetration defined in Section 277/4, while an indecent act under Section 278 is sexual conduct that does not involve such penetration, and it carries a lighter penalty.
Is an indecent act under Section 278 compoundable?
The basic offence can be compounded only in the narrow circumstances set out in Section 281, that is, where it was not committed in public and caused no grievous harm or death.
Related guides on ThaiLawOnline
Cite this section
-
Plain citation
Penal Code, s. 278 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Penal Code (Thailand), s. 278. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-278/ (accessed 17 August 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.อ. มาตรา 278 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-278/ -
Embed on your site
<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-278/"><p>Whoever commits an indecent act against a person over fifteen years of age by threat of any kind, by violence, while that person is in a state in which he or she cannot resist, or by causing that person to mistake the offender for another…</p><footer>Penal Code, s. 278 (Thailand) — <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-278/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.