Factors in Determining the Period of Imprisonment for the Assault Offences and the Design of Sentencing Guidelines in a Form of Computer Program

Abstract

According to the provisions with regard to the offences against body in the Thai Criminal Code, the wide-ranging discretion for the period of imprisonment is left to the court. At the present time, there is no clear or formal guideline for the court to determine the appropriate period of imprisonment for the offences causing bodily harm. It is therefore difficult for the court to maintain certainty by imposing the same or similar period of imprisonment on the offenders in different cases in which the offences committed and the given facts or circumstances are alike. The first part of this research focuses on the factors to be considered by the court to determine the period of imprisonment that will be imposed on a criminal who commits an offence causing bodily harm. The second part of this research is further developed from the proposal in the author’s master thesis, namely, “Factors in determining sentencing for the offence of theft.” According to the thesis, it has been suggested that the sentencing guidelines should be prepared in the form of paper to provide a comprehensive listof factors for the court in determining the period of imprisonment to be imposed on the offender. However, this research rather suggests that the sentencing guidelines should be prepared in the form of computer program than the form of paper. In order to maintain certainty and fairness by determining the same or similar period of imprisonment for the same or similar cases, the computer program which contains a comprehensive list of all factors would facilitate the court’s discretion to render such decision. In addition to the fact that the use of the computer program can reduce the expenses for developing sentencing guidelines, the well-designed program can be more user-friendly and highly accurate.