Before a defendant's guilt has been established, Thai law directs the police, prosecutors, and courts to make pretrial release decisions that ensure both society's safety and the defendant's appearance at future proceedings. It also provides decision makers with criteria and options for delivering the pretrial release service. This research examines how Thai officials actually interpret and implement the legislative directives regarding bail. Specifically, it examines the operation of bail by the police, prosecutors, and courts in Nakornsawan and Lumpang provinces and the factors most important for them in making bail decisions. / Data collection from both provinces includes (a) interviews with key actors in the bail process; (b) observations of how they operate bail; and (c) examinations of official files of arrestees in 1983. Multiple regression and discriminant analysis are used to analyze the official data. / The study shows that bail is used not only for statutory reasons, but also for other purposes, such as coercing defendants to cooperate with the informal case processing technique. It also shows that officials use the seriousness of the defendant's crime as the most important criterion for selecting bail candidates and setting the amount of bail as it is readily available in every case and thus is easy to obtain and verify. Before giving pretrial liberty, officials also require every defendant to post financial bail. / The practice of money bail discriminates against the poor who are the majority of arrestees. It also violates the right to bail of those poor who pose the least bail risk, but are unable to afford financial bail. As a result, the bondsman becomes an important factor in helping most defendants post bail and obtain their freedom. / The study suggests that factors related to the likelihood of the defendant's appearance at future proceedings, as advocated by the Vera Institute, instead of the defendant's offense, should receive greater consideration in bail decisions. In addition, money bail should be used as the last resort to prevent a defendant's disappearance. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 48-07, Section: A, page: 1892. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1987.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_76135 |
| Contributors | MAMAN, PANYA., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 616 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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