Youth law refers to law that protects minors who are under 18 years old. It is mainly created to prevent child abuses. And if any youth commits a crime, their punishments will be lesser than common laws. In Thailand, there were various cases that clearly injustice. For example, an underage biker raped a women but he was sentenced to be jailed just for 3 months. The punishment was terribly unfair since offender was a youth. Another incident was a group of bikers provoked and disturbed townsfolk in the late night. There were a couple of men approached this gangster and hit one of them with their shovels caused that youth biker died. But those brave men were convicted, condemned and punished to be in the prison for a long term. These major incidents are crystal clear that Thai’s legal system and the police department are incompetent. Moreover, teenagers will be encouraged to defy laws. Why a common people should be sentenced instead of those convicted youngsters?
In my opinion, I can recommend 2 choices. The first one is the abolishment. If Thai court cannot sentence these criminals with justice, Thailand should rescind youth law and enforce public law on Thai teenagers instead. I believe that if it could be done, crime rates in Thailand will be reduced. And peace will be restored in the communities once again. For the second way, we can edit some of youth law. The definition of the word “underage” should be corrected to 10 years old instead of 15 years old. Public law will be effective on any people whom age is above than 10. The second option will be more flexible and it is still protect Thai adolescents. Whatever it is, the youth law should be improved.
By Nuttagon "Pique" Sattayapanich : 530132006
I don't believe in putting the youth in jail if that is what you mean by letting them be judged the same as adults. Putting them in jail is like taking them out of school and putting them in a university where they can master their skills in the crime. The jail is where professional criminals gather and they have plenty of time to learn from other experts in various fields of crime.
ReplyDeleteI find it okay to have them judged differently. What needs to be changed is to find a way for their parents to be more responsible or find a way for them to turn back and do something good.
I believe there are reasons for sentencing minors less than adults. One is that they are younger. Lack of experience, lack of knowledge, and full of innocence could lead them to unintentional crimes. Therefore, they should be given a chance to learn how to behave legally in the world that their parents are in. Not the one that full of criminals.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I think that the definition of "youth", in term of age, should be changed because children are growing up much faster than the past. They tend to be able to separate right and wrong quicker than children in the past.
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ReplyDeleteHonestly, I barely know about the law of protection of minors. Indeed, your writing reminds me that a car accident happened in Bangkok around two month ago. It is caused by a high school student who is not able to drive in her age. The accident at least led to 3 people died, all of them were great lecturers in famous universities of Thailand. I was wondering about how the law would sentence the girl because I couldn’t find any following news about the accident.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think even the law sentence the girl to death. Dead person still can’t come alive. I didn’t mean that biasing for minors. Only there must be reason why have special law for minors. Based on their physiological condition, adolescents are not enough mature to make right decisions.
Partially, I approve of your second way of changing the definition of “underage”. Decreasing the age to 15 years old can be an option. After all, unlike old times, today’s minors are living in a modern society. The new generation grows up much faster than the last one and become mature earlier.