Section 41: Habitual offender detention criteria
Statutory text (Thai original)
ผู้ใดเคยถูกศาลพิพากษาให้กักกันมาแล้ว หรือเคยถูกศาลพิพากษาให้ลงโทษจำคุกไม่ต่ำกว่าหกเดือนมาแล้วไม่น้อยกว่าสองครั้งในความผิดดังต่อไปนี้ คือ (๑) ความผิดเกี่ยวกับความสงบสุขของประชาชน ตามที่บัญญัติไว้ในมาตรา ๒๐๙ ถึงมาตรา ๒๑๖ (๒) ความผิดเกี่ยวกับการก่อให้เกิดภยันตรายต่อประชาชน ตามที่บัญญัติไว้ในมาตรา ๒๑๗ ถึงมาตรา ๒๒๔ (๓) ความผิดเกี่ยวกับเงินตรา ตามที่บัญญัติไว้ในมาตรา ๒๔๐ ถึงมาตรา ๒๔๖ (๔) ความผิดเกี่ยวกับเพศ ตามที่บัญญัติไว้ในมาตรา ๒๗๖ ถึงมาตรา ๒๘๖ (๕) ความผิดต่อชีวิต ตามที่บัญญัติไว้ในมาตรา ๒๘๘ ถึงมาตรา ๒๙๐ มาตรา ๒๙๒ ถึงมาตรา ๒๙๔ (๖) ความผิดต่อร่างกาย ตามที่บัญญัติไว้ในมาตรา ๒๙๕ ถึงมาตรา ๒๙๙ (๗) ความผิดต่อเสรีภาพ ตามที่บัญญัติไว้ในมาตรา ๓๐๙ ถึงมาตรา ๓๒๐ (๘) ความผิดเกี่ยวกับทรัพย์ ตามที่บัญญัติไว้ในมาตรา ๓๓๔ ถึงมาตรา ๓๔๐ มาตรา ๓๕๔ และมาตรา ๓๕๗ และภายในเวลาสิบปีนับแต่วันที่ผู้นั้นได้พ้นจากการกักกัน หรือพ้นโทษ แล้วแต่กรณี ผู้นั้นได้กระทำความผิดอย่างหนึ่งอย่างใดในบรรดาที่ระบุไว้นั้นอีกจนศาลพิพากษาลงโทษจำคุกไม่ต่ำกว่าหกเดือนสำหรับการกระทำความผิดนั้น ศาลอาจถือว่า ผู้นั้นเป็นผู้กระทำความผิดติดนิสัย และจะพิพากษาให้กักกันมีกำหนดเวลาไม่น้อยกว่าสามปีและไม่เกินสิบปีก็ได้ ความผิดซึ่งผู้กระทำได้กระทำในขณะที่มีอายุต่ำกว่าสิบแปดปีนั้น มิให้ถือเป็นความผิดที่จะนำมาพิจารณากักกันตามมาตรานี้[๒๗]
English translation
Whoever has previously been sentenced by a court to detention, or has previously been sentenced by a court to imprisonment of not less than six months on not less than two occasions, for the following offences, namely:
(1) offences against public peace as provided in Section 209 to Section 216;
(2) offences of causing danger to the public as provided in Section 217 to Section 224;
(3) offences relating to currency as provided in Section 240 to Section 246;
(4) sexual offences as provided in Section 276 to Section 286;
(5) offences against life as provided in Section 288 to Section 290 and Section 292 to Section 294;
(6) offences against the body as provided in Section 295 to Section 299;
(7) offences against liberty as provided in Section 309 to Section 320;
(8) offences against property as provided in Section 334 to Section 340, Section 354, and Section 357;
and who, within ten years from the date of release from detention or from the punishment, as the case may be, again commits any one of the offences so specified, and is thereupon sentenced by the court to imprisonment of not less than six months for that offence, may be regarded by the court as a habitual offender, and the court may sentence that person to detention for a period of not less than three years and not more than ten years.
An offence committed by the offender while under eighteen years of age shall not be taken into account as an offence for the purpose of ordering detention under this Section.
ThaiLawOnline translation, written from the Thai original and verified
Firm annotation
Section 41 sets the substantive criteria for treating a repeat offender as a habitual offender and imposing detention (defined in Section 40) in place of imprisonment. The elements are cumulative: a qualifying prior record (prior detention, or two or more prior imprisonments of at least six months) for offenses within the enumerated categories, reoffending in one of those categories within ten years, and a fresh sentence of at least six months' imprisonment. Where met, the court may order detention of three to ten years instead of the punishment. Offences committed while the offender was under eighteen years of age are disregarded. The measure is discretionary, and prior convictions cleared by a rehabilitation statute cannot be counted.
Why this matters in practice
If you have a qualifying record for property, violence, sexual, currency, public-peace, or public-danger offenses and reoffend within ten years, the prosecution may ask the court to detain you for three to ten years instead of, or after, a prison term. Two defenses commonly matter: whether the prior convictions truly fit the statutory pattern (including the under-eighteen cutoff), and whether any prior conviction was cleared by a rehabilitation law, which then cannot be counted. A criminal records check in Thailand helps confirm what record the prosecution can rely on, and because detention is discretionary, mitigation on character and prospects of reform is worthwhile.
Supreme Court decisions interpreting this section
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Supreme Court Judgment No. 698/2563 (2020)
Where a person previously convicted of theft as an adult is released and, within ten years, again commits theft drawing imprisonment of more than six months, the criteria in Section 41 for ordering detention as a habitual offender are met.
The court found the defendant, previously convicted of theft as an adult and released, had within ten years again committed theft with a sentence exceeding six months, and held that this met the Section 41 criteria for considering detention as a habitual offender.
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Supreme Court Judgment No. 2105/2531 (1988)
Prior convictions cleared by a rehabilitation statute (clearing of criminal record) before it came into force cannot be used to enhance the penalty or to order detention under Section 41.
The Supreme Court held that where a rehabilitation statute had cleared the defendant's earlier convictions that were already served before the statute took effect, those convictions could not be counted to enhance the penalty or to order detention.
Curated decisions with case numbers verified against the Supreme Court database. English renderings are the firm's editorial translation for study.
Cited in 26 Supreme Court decisions (1957 to 2024)
Selected citing decisions
- Decision 698/2563 (2020)
- Decision 2636/2530 (1987)
- Decision 632/2513 (1970)
- Decision 30/2511 (1968)
- Decision 1475/2508 (1965)
- Decision 422/2507 (1964)
- Decision 683/2506 (1963)
- Decision 646/2506 (1963)
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 335 11
- Section 93 9
- Section 78 5
- Section 357 5
- Section 83 5
- Section 15 5
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
When can a Thai court order detention instead of prison?
Under Section 41, when a person with a qualifying prior record for listed offenses reoffends within ten years and faces at least six months' imprisonment, the court may order detention of three to ten years.
Do old juvenile offenses count toward habitual offender status?
No. Section 41 disregards any offence committed while the offender was under eighteen years of age.
How long can habitual offender detention last?
Not less than three years and not more than ten years, imposed instead of the punishment.
Related guides on ThaiLawOnline
Cite this section
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Plain citation
Penal Code, s. 41 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Penal Code (Thailand), s. 41. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-41/ (accessed 17 August 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.อ. มาตรา 41 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-41/ -
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<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-41/"><p>Whoever has previously been sentenced by a court to detention, or has previously been sentenced by a court to imprisonment of not less than six months on not less than two occasions, for the following offences, namely: (1) offences against public peace as provided in…</p><footer>Penal Code, s. 41 (Thailand) — <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-41/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.