Section 76: Young adult 18 to 20: discretionary reduction
Statutory text (Thai original)
ผู้ใดอายุตั้งแต่สิบแปดปีแต่ยังไม่เกินยี่สิบปี กระทำการอันกฎหมายบัญญัติเป็นความผิด ถ้าศาลเห็นสมควรจะลดมาตราส่วนโทษที่กำหนดไว้สำหรับความผิดนั้นลงหนึ่งในสามหรือกึ่งหนึ่งก็ได้
English translation
Whoever, from eighteen years but not over twenty years of age, commits an act that the law provides to be an offence, if the court thinks fit, the court may reduce the scale of the punishment prescribed for that offence by one third or by one half.
This English translation is provided for reference only and has not yet been firm-verified. Always rely on the Thai original.
Firm annotation
This is the final rung of the age-based scheme in Book 1, Title on Criminal Liability. An offender in the 18-to-20 band is treated as a full adult subject to the ordinary punishment, but the court is given a discretion, exercisable only if it thinks fit, to soften the scale of punishment by one third or one half. The contrast with section 75 is important: for the 15-to-18 band the one-half reduction is mandatory once the court decides to punish, whereas here any reduction depends wholly on the court's view of the person and the circumstances, and the court may reduce by the smaller one-third fraction or decline to reduce at all. This scale reduction is distinct from, and can be combined with, discretionary mitigation under section 78.
Why this matters in practice
For a defendant between eighteen and twenty, there is no guaranteed sentence discount: the reduction is a matter of persuasion, so mitigation evidence about age, background, education and efforts to repair the harm carries real weight. Because the court can choose one third or one half, the difference between the two fractions can be substantial in a serious case, and a defendant should press for the larger reduction while also seeking further mitigation under section 78. Establishing the exact age at the time of the act remains essential.
Supreme Court decisions interpreting this section
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Supreme Court Judgment No. 345/2568 (2025)
Section 76 lets the court reduce the scale of the punishment fixed for an offence by up to one half for an offender over eighteen but not over twenty at the time of the act. A reduction made by the court of first instance does not survive where the whole prosecution is afterwards dismissed.
The court of first instance convicted six defendants of a gang rape and, for the first, fifth and sixth, who were eighteen and nineteen at the time of the act, reduced the scale of punishment by one half under section 76, bringing fifteen years down to seven years and six months before further mitigation. The Court of Appeal Region 3 reversed and dismissed the whole prosecution, because the investigation had been carried out by police who had no authority over the case so the prosecutor had no power to sue, and the Supreme Court affirmed. The section 76 reduction therefore belongs to a judgment that no longer stands, and no punishment was imposed on any defendant.
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Supreme Court Judgment No. 4136/2567 (2024)
Section 76 also permits a one-third reduction; a defendant aged nineteen at the time may have the scale of punishment reduced by one third rather than one half.
The defendant, aged nineteen at the time, was convicted of murder and firearms offences. The court reduced the scale of punishment by one third under section 76, showing that the court may choose the smaller fraction rather than one half.
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Supreme Court Judgment No. 811/2568 (2025)
The reduction under section 76 is discretionary; the court may find it appropriate to reduce the scale of punishment in light of the young offender's age, record and conduct.
The court found it appropriate to reduce the scale of punishment under section 76, noting the defendant's youth, lack of any prior conviction and the impulsive nature of the conduct, and further suspended the term of imprisonment.
Curated decisions with case numbers verified against the Supreme Court database. English renderings are the firm's editorial translation for study.
Cited in 411 Supreme Court decisions (1960 to 2025)
Selected citing decisions
- Decision 345/2568 (2025)
- Decision 2159/2566 (2023)
- Decision 1494/2566 (2023)
- Decision 3069/2565 (2022)
- Decision 1317/2565 (2022)
- Decision 167/2565 (2022)
- Decision 2425/2564 (2021)
- Decision 399/2564 (2021)
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 78 284
- Section 83 250
- Section 91 214
- Section 90 128
- Section 288 106
- Section 33 95
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
Is the sentence reduction automatic for an 18 to 20 year old?
No. Under section 76 the reduction is discretionary; the court may reduce the scale of punishment by one third or one half only if it thinks fit, and it may decline to reduce at all.
How does section 76 differ from section 75?
Under section 75 the one-half reduction is mandatory once the court decides to punish a 15-to-18 year old, while under section 76 any reduction for an 18-to-20 year old is discretionary and may be one third or one half.
Related guides on ThaiLawOnline
Cite this section
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Plain citation
Penal Code, s. 76 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Penal Code (Thailand), s. 76. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-76/ (accessed 17 August 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.อ. มาตรา 76 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-76/ -
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<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-76/"><p>Whoever, from eighteen years but not over twenty years of age, commits an act that the law provides to be an offence, if the court thinks fit, the court may reduce the scale of the punishment prescribed for that offence by one third or by…</p><footer>Penal Code, s. 76 (Thailand) — <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-76/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.