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Singapore Trends in Criminal Activities
Singapore's criminal code included seven classes of
offenses.
Class one covered serious crimes against persons,
including murder,
rape, and assault with a deadly weapon. Classes two
through four
were concerned with arson, robbery, theft, and abuse of
another's
property. Class five crimes included forgery,
counterfeiting, and
fraud. Classes six and seven covered violations of the
penal code
in matters of public safety and violations of special
criminal
ordinances, particularly those related to drugs, firearms,
gambling, vagrancy, vandalism, and petty crime.
A high percentage of murder cases were solved each year
by
police. In 1988 only ten of fifty-four murders had not
been solved
by police at the end of the year. The percentage of
murder cases
solved had steadily increased since the 1960s. In 1969
police
solved 44 percent of seventy-eight murders. This number
improved to
68 percent of fifty-seven murders in 1983, and in 1988 to
81
percent of the total.
Police were less successful in solving other types of
crimes.
In 1984, there were 677 incidents reported to police that
included
sexual and other types of assaults on persons, including
robberies
and beatings. Police solved approximately 50 percent of
these
crimes. In 1984 only 20 percent of the reported 1,620
armed robbery
cases had been solved at the time statistics for that year
were
reported to the ICPO. Persons under the age of sixteen
were
classified as juveniles and given special treatment under
the law.
In 1984, few juveniles were charged with committing
serious crimes.
Juveniles were involved in no murders, 8 percent of the
sexual
assaults, and 10 percent of the armed robberies.
Most of the crimes for which statistics were available
in 1984
involved various types of theft. Sixty percent of the
crimes
reported that year were classified as thefts that did not
involve
a dangerous weapon. Police solved 18 percent of the almost
23,000
reported cases of theft, and juveniles were believed to be
responsible for 12 percent of these crimes. Between 1971
and 1983,
police were successful in substantially reducing the
number of car
thefts. In 1971 almost 9,000 vehicles were stolen,
compared with
only 470 in 1984. In 1983, juveniles were responsible for
77
percent of all car thefts.
In the early 1970s, the government determined that the
misuse
of illegal drugs, particularly heroin, cannabis, and such
psychotropic tablets as methaqualone, was a major problem.
In 1973
Parliament passed the Misuse of Drugs Act, which mandated
imprisonment for drug dealers and instituted new programs
to
rehabilitate users. The act also enabled the government to
monitor
the problem more accurately because most of the persons
arrested
each year on drug charges already had a criminal record.
In the
1980s, more than 5,000 persons were arrested annually on
drug
charges. Only 10 percent of those arrested were newly
identified
users, however, and another 10 percent were found to be
involved in
selling illegal drugs.
Data as of December 1989
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