Sentencing Comparator
Statutory maxima for the same offence across Thailand and six better-ranked systems on the WJP Rule of Law Index. The further a country sits from Thailand's bar, the larger the structural gap.
Choose an offence
We use the simplest, non-aggravated form. Drug trafficking and lèse-majesté are included for scale; they have no clean equivalent in most comparator systems.
Maximum sentence — Online defamation / insult
Bars in red are Thailand. Comparator countries in blue. "Life" appears as a capped bar at the top of scale.
Country breakdown
Sortable by country, WJP rank, or statutory ceiling.
| Notes | |||
|---|---|---|---|
ThailandThailand | #78 | 5 years | Outlier on speech offences. §112 sentences are stacked per offending message — the current cumulative record is 50 years. |
Japan | #16 | 3 years | ~99% conviction rate; pretrial detention is widely documented as a confession-extraction lever. |
Canada | #12 | 2 years | — |
Singapore | #17 | 2 years | Drug trafficking above statutory thresholds carries the mandatory death penalty. |
Sweden | #4 | 6 months | — |
Netherlands | #7 | 6 months | — |
Norway | #2 | Civil only | Defamation decriminalised in 2015. Statutory ceiling is 21 years for any offence except genocide/crimes against humanity. |
Statutory maxima are not the same as actual sentencing averages. Comparators here highlight the legal ceiling a court could impose under each country's penal code for a non-aggravated form of the offence. National guidelines, prosecutorial policy, and judicial practice vary independently of the maximum.