Faith and justice in action: Understanding the Buddhist temple's function in civic probation in Central Thailand

This study examines how Buddhist temples function as civic probation centers in Central Thailand, utilizing Bourdieu's theoretical framework to analyze their rehabilitation practices. Through qualitative research at urban and rural temple sites involving 29 participants (probation officers, volunteers, monks, and probationers). Three key findings were identified: First, temples create hybrid fields where different forms of capital facilitate rehabilitation by reconfiguring penal authority through combining formal oversight with spiritual guidance. Second, Buddhist meditation practices and ethical teachings serve as alternative rehabilitation resources, providing “transcendent moral anchors” for behavioral change that address internal patterns underlying problematic behaviors rather than external compliance alone. Third, vocational training and community integration activities represent capital conversion, wherein temples' social capital facilitates access to legitimate economic opportunities while reducing stigma through community reintegration. The temples' cultural authority enhances rehabilitation legitimacy while creating “moral locales” where supervision transitions from bureaucratic compliance to moral reintegration. Despite resource disparities between urban and rural settings and tensions between religious and bureaucratic approaches, the temple-based model demonstrates how cultural institutions effectively support judicial objectives while addressing limitations in conventional probation. This research contributes to understanding culturally embedded rehabilitation approaches and offers insights for developing probation systems that leverage existing community institutions to enhance rehabilitation outcomes.