Methodology
Every figure on this site traces back to a public source. This page lists the datasets and investigations the rest of the site cites, grouped by topic, and explains what we have deliberately left out.
What we cite
The catalogue of citations below mirrors the SOURCES registry in lib/justice-data.ts. Each entry on the site that uses a figure attaches a source id; the source id resolves here to a label and a URL.
Justice-system metrics
Aggregate rule-of-law and criminal-justice indicators used on the homepage shock stats, scorecard, and comparator.
- WJP Rule of Law Index 2024 — Thailand country profile — World Justice Project, October 2024
Prison & detention statistics
Inmate counts, capacity, pretrial share, drug-offence share, and year-on-year trends. The Thai Department of Corrections does not publish granular case-level data; the figures here are the most-cited aggregate sources.
- World Prison Brief — Thailand — Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research, December 2024
- Thailand Annual Prison Report 2025 — FIDH / UCL, 2025
Lèse-majesté (§112) prosecutions
Charge counts, conviction rates, and the cumulative-sentence record. Thai Lawyers for Human Rights publishes the most complete §112 dataset; FIDH and major international outlets confirm individual milestone cases.
- §112 prosecution statistics — April 2024 update — Thai Lawyers for Human Rights, April 2024
- 50-year §112 sentence — Mongkhon T. — Thai Lawyers for Human Rights, January 2024
- Thailand: lèse-majesté verdicts reach 100 in less than two years — FIDH, November 2023
- 50-year lèse-majesté term a record, say lawyers — Bangkok Post, January 2024
- Thailand sentences man to record 50 years in prison for insulting monarchy — CNN, January 2024
US TIP Report and trafficking prosecutions
Tier placements and reported conviction counts come from the US Department of State annual Trafficking in Persons Report. The 2014 tier downgrade is also referenced.
- Trafficking in Persons Report 2025 — Thailand — US Department of State, June 2025
- Trafficking in Persons Report 2014 — Tier placements — US Department of State, 2014
Comparator country statutes (regional peers)
Statutes and country profiles underlying the four regional-peer rows (Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia) on the /comparator page. Chart figures are base-tier statutory sentences; aggravated tiers are discussed in each country’s notes.
- Vietnam Penal Code 2015 (as amended 2017) — Consolidated text No. 01/VBHN-VPQH — Office of the National Assembly of Vietnam / LuatVietnam, 2015 code; 2017 amendmentsNote: Articles referenced in the comparator: 134 (intentional bodily harm), 150 (human trafficking), 173 (theft), 174 (fraudulent appropriation), 251 (drug trafficking), 331 (abusing democratic freedoms).
- Penal Code (Act 574) of Malaysia — consolidated — Attorney General’s Chambers of Malaysia, Consolidated textNote: Sections referenced in the comparator: 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 379 (theft), 392 (robbery), 420 (cheating).
- Sedition Act 1948 (Act 15) of Malaysia — Attorney General’s Chambers of MalaysiaNote: Sections 3(1)(f) + 4(1) cover seditious speech toward the Ruler/monarchy — first-offence maximum three years; five years for subsequent offences.
- Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act 2007 (Act 670) — Attorney General’s Chambers of MalaysiaNote: Section 12 sets the base trafficking offence at maximum 15 years.
- Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 (Malaysia), section 233 — Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (secondary mirror), 1998; pending 2024 amendmentNote: Section 233(3): fine up to RM50,000 and/or up to one year imprisonment. A 2024 amendment bill would raise this to two years / RM500,000; not yet in force at the time of writing.
- Law No. 35/2009 on Narcotics (Undang-Undang Narkotika) — JICA / Government of Indonesia (English translation), 2009Note: Articles 114 (base-tier trafficking; death penalty / life / 5–20 years available even at non-aggravated quantities) and 127 (personal-use possession of Category I narcotics, four years).
- Kitab Undang-Undang Hukum Pidana (KUHP) 2023 — Law No. 1/2023 — Government of Indonesia, Enacted 2 January 2023; in force 2 January 2026Note: Replaces most of the 1946 KUHP. Articles referenced: 218–220 (insulting the president — complaint-only offence, 3.5–4 years; Indonesia’s functional lèse-majesté analogue), 256 (unnotified demonstration, six months), 466 (basic assault, 2.5 years), 476 (theft, five years), 479 (aggravated theft/robbery with violence, nine years base), 492 (fraud, four years).
- Law No. 21/2007 on the Eradication of the Criminal Act of Trafficking in Persons — Government of Indonesia, 2007Note: Article 2(1) sets basic trafficking at 3–15 years; aggravated forms reach life.
- Law on Drug Control (Cambodia), 2012 — National Authority for Combating Drugs (NACD), 2012Note: Article 40 covers unlawful keeping, transporting, or trafficking of Table I/II narcotics. Base tier: 2–5 years. Escalating tiers reach 5–10, 10–20, and 20–30 years or life imprisonment for the largest quantities. Cambodia has no death penalty (abolished 1989, enshrined in the 1993 Constitution).
- Penal Code of the Kingdom of Cambodia (2009) — International Commission of Jurists (English translation), 2009Note: Articles 217 (intentional violence, basic tier 1–3 years), 495 (incitement to commit a felony, five years). Article 437bis (added 27 February 2018) creates the lèse-majesté offence for insulting or defaming the King (1–5 years).
- Cambodia — new lèse-majesté law (Penal Code Art 437bis) — International Bar Association, February 2018Note: One-to-five year prison term plus fine for insulting the King.
- Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation (Cambodia), 2008 — Royal Government of Cambodia (English translation via Mekong Migration Network), 2008Note: Article 10 sets basic trafficking of adults at 7–15 years; aggravated forms (minor victim, official abuse of authority) reach 15–20 years. No provision reaches life imprisonment.
- WJP Rule of Law Index 2024 — Vietnam country profile — World Justice Project, October 2024Note: Vietnam rank reported as 81 in the 2024 index (secondary sources; the primary WJP PDF was not directly rendered by the fetcher used). Numeric overall score not captured.
- WJP Rule of Law Index 2025 — Malaysia country profile — World Justice Project, October 2025Note: Malaysia rank 56 of 143 in the 2025 index. The 2024-specific document was not directly renderable; the 2025 figure is used as the freshest available ranking.
- WJP Rule of Law Index 2024 — Indonesia country profile — World Justice Project, October 2024Note: Indonesia rank 69 in the 2024 index. Numeric overall score not captured.
- WJP Rule of Law Index 2024 — Cambodia country profile — World Justice Project, October 2024Note: Cambodia rank 141 of 142 in the 2024 index; overall score 0.31 (well corroborated across secondary reporting; primary WJP page JS-rendered).
Foreign-defendant reference sources
Treaty and government-guidance references underlying the /foreign page: consular notification, visa/overstay consequences, prisoner-transfer treaties, interpreter rights, embassy scope-of-help.
- Vienna Convention on Consular Relations — Article 36 (Communication and contact with nationals of the sending State) — United Nations, 1963 (ratified by Thailand 1985)Note: Article 36(1)(b) requires the host state to notify a detained foreign national, "without delay", of their right to have their consulate informed.
- Act on Cooperation between Thailand and Foreign States in the Execution of Penal Sentences, B.E. 2527 (1984) — Office of the Council of State (Krisdika), 1984Note: The domestic statutory framework under which Thailand transfers sentenced foreigners back to their home state. Requires a bilateral treaty + consent of both governments + consent of the prisoner.
- Treaty between the United States and the Kingdom of Thailand on Cooperation in the Execution of Penal Sentences (TIAS 10599) — US Department of State, Signed 1982; in force 1988
- Treaty between the United Kingdom and the Kingdom of Thailand on the Transfer of Offenders and Cooperation in the Enforcement of Penal Sentences — UK Treaties Online (FCDO), Signed 1990; in force 1991
- Treaty between Australia and the Kingdom of Thailand on the Transfer of Offenders and Co-operation in the Enforcement of Penal Sentences (ATS 2002 No 18) — Australian Treaty Series, Signed 2002; in force 2002
- Treaty between Canada and the Kingdom of Thailand on the Transfer of Offenders and on Co-operation in the Enforcement of Penal Sentences — Government of Canada — Treaty Database, Signed 2002; in force 2003
- Criminal Procedure Code of Thailand (Code of Criminal Procedure B.E. 2477) — Office of the Council of State (Krisdika), Consolidated textNote: Section 13 establishes the right to an interpreter when the accused does not understand Thai. Sections 87 and 113 govern the duration of pre-charge detention; Section 107 governs the bail regime.
- Immigration Act B.E. 2522 (1979) — Royal Thai Immigration Bureau / Office of the Council of State, 1979 (as amended)Note: Governs visa status, overstay penalties, and the immigration consequences of criminal detention. Overstay penalties accrue daily; criminal-court remand does not automatically suspend a visa.
- Thailand International Travel Information — arrests, judicial assistance, and prisoner welfare — US Department of State — Bureau of Consular Affairs
- Thailand: foreign travel advice — Local laws and customs / If things go wrong — UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
Bail benchmark sources
The Thai minimum-wage figure used on the /bail and /cost pages.
- Daily minimum wage rate by province — effective 1 January 2024 — Thailand Ministry of Labour, January 2024Note: Bangkok and surrounding provinces: 363 THB/day. Lowest band (Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat): 330 THB/day. Monthly equivalent at 26 working days: 8,580–9,438 THB (~USD 245–270).
Foreign-funded anti-trafficking organisations
Critiques of The Exodus Road, IJM, and OUR draw on academic research, journalistic investigations, and the organisations' own public materials. Self-reported numbers are flagged as such on the trafficking page.
- Hunting for sex-traffickers abroad — by posing as johns — The Washington Post, September 2016
- A Famed Anti-Sex Trafficking Group Has a Problem With the Truth — VICE World News, December 2020
- Inside a Massive Anti-Trafficking Charity's Blundering Overseas Missions — VICE World News, March 2021
- Ex-OUR Employees Said the Group Misled Donors and Lied to the Public — VICE World News, September 2023
- Furor erupts over anti-sex trafficker Exodus Road — Global Observer, June 2021
- The Crusade Against Sex Trafficking — The Nation, October 2009
- Sex Trade Still Thriving, but It's Less Safe — ICIJ — "Divine Intervention" investigation, November 2006
- Manufacturing Freedom: Sex Work, Anti-Trafficking Rehab, and the Racial Wages of Rescue — University of California Press, April 2023
- Human-trafficking prevention is not "sexy": impact of the rescue industry on Thailand NGO programs — Journal of Human Trafficking, 2018
- Called by God — Slate, May 2021
- Hit & Run: Sex Workers' Research on Anti-trafficking in Thailand — Empower Foundation (RATS-W Research Team), 2012
- Collateral Damage: The Impact of Anti-Trafficking Measures on Human Rights — Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW), December 2007
- Off the Streets: Arbitrary Detention & Other Abuses against Sex Workers in Cambodia — Human Rights Watch, July 2010
- Exodus Road Says It's "Not the Same Organization" It Was — MinistryWatch, October 2021
- Sex workers get caught in the crossfire of human trafficking intervention and religion (Wayback snapshot) — Colorado Springs Independent, May 2018Note: Original URL (csindy.com) is dead; cited via Internet Archive Wayback Machine snapshot from 9 Nov 2020.
- British manager of Pattaya Soi 6 bar arrested for human trafficking — Pattaya Mail, April 2023
- More Than 100 Survivors Rescued Within 6 Months — Thai Royal Police trained on Cellebrite tools by The Exodus Road — Cellebrite / Operation Find Them All, August 2024
- The Exodus Road — Thailand operations page — The Exodus Road
- How We Started — Matt Parker bar investigations — The Exodus Road
- The Exodus Road Inc. — IRS Form 990 financial records (EIN 46-1384815) — ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer
What we exclude
No individual-case analysis
PleadOrMax does not analyse, allege, or defend specific living individuals. Named cases such as Mongkhon T. (Court of Appeal, January 2024) and Anchan Preelerd appear only as illustrations of statutory mechanics already in public reporting. The site is built around aggregate data and statute — not litigation of named matters.
No fabricated sub-factor scores
The WJP Rule of Law Index publishes overall and factor-level scores on its country profile. Individual sub-factor breakdowns require direct access to the WJP Excel dataset; rather than synthesise plausible-looking radar values, we cite only what the WJP publishes openly.
No per-offence remand estimates
Thai courts do not publish typical pretrial-detention durations broken down by offence. The aggregate pretrial share (22.5%, WPB July 2024) is the only remand figure cited — and the risk-score computation in
lib/justice-data.ts uses statutory maximum and bail availability, not a fabricated remand estimate.No off-the-record allegations
Critiques of named foreign anti-trafficking organisations cite on-the-record statements from named speakers in named publications, plus the organisations’ own public materials (websites, IRS Form 990 financial filings via ProPublica). We do not paraphrase background-source claims or repeat anonymous allegations.
Updates
When primary sources publish new data (World Prison Brief annual update, US TIP Report annual update, FIDH annual prison report), the figures on this site are refreshed in lib/justice-data.ts and the methodology citations are extended. The glossary and FAQ are updated alongside.
Methodology changelog
Substantive changes to the site’s data or editorial standard. Content refreshes (new update posts, glossary entries added) live in /updates.
- 2026-07-14 — Refactor + audit fixes shippedSecond-pass code + AI-SEO audit landed. Cost calculator now short-circuits with an explanatory card on life/death offences (previously showed “1,200 months statutory maximum”). WebSite SearchAction JSON-LD removed (was pointing at a slug route that would 404 on any real query). DefinedTerm alternateName stopped stuffing sibling terms (schema.org misuse). No underlying figure changed.
- 2026-07-07 — Cloudflare AI-scraper unblockCloudflare’s managed bot rules were serving
Disallow: /to every major AI training bot (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, CCBot, Google-Extended, Applebot-Extended, Bytespider, Amazonbot, meta-externalagent) — nullifying the site’s llms.txt investment. Disabled at the zone level. Documented editorial position: citation with attribution welcomed; misattribution or AI-generated personal allegations about named individuals are not. - 2026-06-16 — Regional comparators addedVietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia appended to the sentencing comparator. Chart figures are base-tier statutory sentences; aggravated tiers (death penalty for VN/ID drug trafficking, life at KH aggravated) are documented in each country’s notes. Cells that couldn’t be verified against a primary source render as “N/A” rather than being guessed.
Corrections log
Figures that were later revised. Format: date · figure · what was wrong · source that corrected it. No entries yet — this section will populate as corrections come in. Report a figure that needs correcting to [email protected].