Section 39: Measures of safety listed
Statutory text (Thai original)
วิธีการเพื่อความปลอดภัย มีดังนี้ (๑) กักกัน (๒) ห้ามเข้าเขตกำหนด (๓) เรียกประกันทัณฑ์บน (๔) คุมตัวไว้ในสถานพยาบาล (๕) ห้ามการประกอบอาชีพบางอย่าง
English translation
The measures of safety are as follows:
(1) detention;
(2) prohibition from entering a specified area;
(3) requiring a bond for keeping the peace;
(4) custody in a medical facility;
(5) prohibition from engaging in certain occupations.
This English translation is provided for reference only and has not yet been firm-verified. Always rely on the Thai original.
Firm annotation
Section 39 enumerates the five measures of safety in Thai criminal law. Unlike punishments, these are preventive and forward-looking, aimed at averting future harm rather than penalizing a past act, and they can be imposed alongside or instead of punishment where the relevant provisions allow. The list is defined and elaborated in the sections that follow, notably Section 40, which defines detention, and Sections 41 to 42, which set the habitual-offender criteria and the calculation of the detention period. Their preventive character means they can be ordered even in situations where a punishment cannot.
Why this matters in practice
Measures of safety can attach to a criminal case in addition to any sentence, so a defendant may face not only punishment but preventive orders such as detention, an area ban, a peace bond, medical custody, or an occupational ban. Because they are preventive rather than punitive, they are triggered by the risk of future offending, so the record and circumstances of the accused matter. Prosecutors often request these measures in the charge, so review them early when assessing exposure.
Cited in 25 Supreme Court decisions (1958 to 2026)
Selected citing decisions
- Decision 5331/2563 (2020)
- Decision 5035/2560 (2017)
- Decision 3919/2553 (2010)
- Decision 552/2542 (1999)
- Decision 73/2523 (1980)
- Decision 24/2513 (1970)
- Decision 177/2508 (1965)
- Decision 28/2569 (2026)
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 78 14
- Section 91 12
- Section 90 10
- Section 83 9
- Thai CrPC s. 39 9
- Section 33 6
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 are the measures of safety in Thai criminal law?
Section 39 lists five: detention, prohibition from a specified area, a peace bond, custody in a medical facility, and prohibition from certain occupations.
Are measures of safety the same as punishment?
No. They are preventive measures aimed at averting future offending and can be imposed alongside or instead of a punishment.
Cite this section
-
Plain citation
Penal Code, s. 39 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Penal Code (Thailand), s. 39. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-39/ (accessed 21 August 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.อ. มาตรา 39 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-39/ -
Embed on your site
<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-39/"><p>The measures of safety are as follows: (1) detention; (2) prohibition from entering a specified area; (3) requiring a bond for keeping the peace; (4) custody in a medical facility; (5) prohibition from engaging in certain occupations.</p><footer>Penal Code, s. 39 (Thailand) — <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-39/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.