Section 282: Procuring a person for indecency
Statutory text (Thai original)
ผู้ใดเพื่อสนองความใคร่ของผู้อื่น เป็นธุระจัดหา ล่อไป หรือพาไปเพื่อการอนาจารซึ่งชายหรือหญิง แม้ผู้นั้นจะยินยอมก็ตาม ต้องระวางโทษจำคุกตั้งแต่หนึ่งปีถึงสิบปี และปรับตั้งแต่สองหมื่นบาทถึงสองแสนบาท ถ้าการกระทำความผิดตามวรรคแรกเป็นการกระทำแก่บุคคลอายุเกินสิบห้าปีแต่ยังไม่เกินสิบแปดปี ผู้กระทำต้องระวางโทษจำคุกตั้งแต่สามปีถึงสิบห้าปี และปรับตั้งแต่หกหมื่นบาทถึงสามแสนบาท ถ้าการกระทำความผิดตามวรรคแรกเป็นการกระทำแก่เด็กอายุยังไม่เกินสิบห้าปี ผู้กระทำต้องระวางโทษจำคุกตั้งแต่ห้าปีถึงยี่สิบปี และปรับตั้งแต่หนึ่งแสนบาทถึงสี่แสนบาท ผู้ใดเพื่อสนองความใคร่ของผู้อื่น รับตัวบุคคลซึ่งมีผู้จัดหา ล่อไป หรือพาไปตามวรรคแรก วรรคสอง หรือวรรคสาม หรือสนับสนุนในการกระทำความผิดดังกล่าว ต้องระวางโทษตามที่บัญญัติไว้ในวรรคแรก วรรคสอง หรือวรรคสาม แล้วแต่กรณี หมายเหตุ: [อัตราโทษ แก้ไขเพิ่มเติมโดยมาตรา ๑๒ แห่งพระราชบัญญัติแก้ไขเพิ่มเติมประมวลกฎหมายอาญา (ฉบับที่ ๒๖) พ.ศ. ๒๕๖๐]
English translation
Whoever, in order to gratify the sexual desire of another person, procures, seduces or takes away a man or a woman for an indecent purpose, even with that person's consent, shall be liable to imprisonment from one to ten years and a fine from twenty thousand to two hundred thousand baht.
Where the offence under paragraph one is committed against a person over fifteen but not over eighteen years of age, the offender shall be liable to imprisonment from three to fifteen years and a fine from sixty thousand to three hundred thousand baht.
Where the offence under paragraph one is committed against a child not over fifteen years of age, the offender shall be liable to imprisonment from five to twenty years and a fine from one hundred thousand to four hundred thousand baht.
Whoever, in order to gratify the sexual desire of another person, receives a person who has been procured, seduced or taken away under paragraph one, paragraph two or paragraph three, or supports the commission of that offence, shall be liable to the punishment prescribed in paragraph one, paragraph two or paragraph three, as the case may be.
ThaiLawOnline translation, written from the Thai original and verified
Firm annotation
Section 282 targets the person who acts as a facilitator or procurer, arranging others for indecency to gratify a third party's sexual desire, rather than the person who performs the sexual act. Its elements are procuring, seducing, or taking away a man or woman, for the purpose of an indecent act, to gratify the sexual desire of another person, and the offence stands even if the person procured consents. The penalty is tiered by the victim's age, with sharply heavier bands for those over fifteen but not over eighteen, and for children not over fifteen. In practice this provision is frequently charged alongside the Prevention and Suppression of Prostitution Act B.E. 2539 and the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act B.E. 2551, and the courts have at times treated the Section 282 offence and a parallel prostitution-law offence as a single act.
Why this matters in practice
A crucial point is that the victim's consent is no defence: arranging a person for indecency is an offence even where the person agreed, which distinguishes this provision from ordinary sexual offences that turn on consent. Penalty exposure scales sharply with the victim's age, reaching five to twenty years for children not over fifteen. These cases often come bundled with prostitution and human-trafficking charges, so the total exposure can be much higher than Section 282 alone, and where the acts overlap the courts may treat them as a single act punished under the heaviest provision. Anyone accused under this section should understand how related criminal charges stack and consult a Thai lawyer early.
Supreme Court decisions interpreting this section
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Supreme Court Judgment No. 1824/2565 (2022)
Where the victim was defrauded and deceived from the outset, procuring her for an indecent purpose or for prostitution is the offence of procuring by fraud under Section 283 paragraph one, not the consent-based offence in Section 282 paragraph one. Where days of prostitution follow from that single fraudulent intent, they are not separate offences from the human-trafficking and procuring offences.
The two defendants were charged with human trafficking, with offences under the Prevention and Suppression of Prostitution Act B.E. 2539 and with procuring under the Penal Code, over three days of prostitution. The Court of Appeal had found the victim was not deceived because she knew she was going to work as a prostitute, and treated the case as one under Section 282 paragraph one. The Supreme Court disagreed: she had been defrauded and deceived from the start, so the offence was procuring by fraud under Section 283 paragraph one, and the three days flowed from that one intent rather than making separate offences.
Curated decisions with case numbers verified against the Supreme Court database. English renderings are the firm's editorial translation for study.
Cited in 83 Supreme Court decisions (1959 to 2023)
Selected citing decisions
- Decision 1824/2565 (2022)
- Decision 801/2561 (2018)
- Decision 6552/2559 (2016)
- Decision 14921/2558 (2015)
- Decision 3930/2558 (2015)
- Decision 21251/2556 (2013)
- Decision 3377/2556 (2013)
- Decision 560/2556 (2013)
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 58
- Section 90 50
- Section 83 47
- Section 78 44
- Section 283 29
- Thai CrPC s. 225 19
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
Does the person's consent matter under Section 282?
No. Procuring, seducing, or taking away a person for an indecent act to gratify another's sexual desire is an offence even with that person's consent.
How does the penalty change with the victim's age?
The basic penalty is one to ten years, rising to three to fifteen years for a victim over fifteen but not over eighteen, and to five to twenty years for a child not over fifteen.
Related guides on ThaiLawOnline
Cite this section
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Plain citation
Penal Code, s. 282 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Penal Code (Thailand), s. 282. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-282/ (accessed 17 August 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.อ. มาตรา 282 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-282/ -
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<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-282/"><p>Whoever, in order to gratify the sexual desire of another person, procures, seduces or takes away a man or a woman for an indecent purpose, even with that person's consent, shall be liable to imprisonment from one to ten years and a fine from twenty…</p><footer>Penal Code, s. 282 (Thailand) — <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-282/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.