Written Replies to Parliamentary Questions
Recidivism Rates for Child Sexual Abuse Offenders in the Past 10 Years
13 January 2026
Question:
Mr Ng Shi Xuan: To ask the Coordinating Minister for National Security and Minister for Home Affairs what are the two-year, five-year and 10-year recidivism rates for child sexual abuse offences over the past 10 years.
Answer:
Mr K Shanmugam, Coordinating Minister for National Security and Minister for Home Affairs:
1. Table 1 shows the two-year and five-year recidivism rates 1 of local offenders who were incarcerated for child sexual abuse offences, and whose re-offending offence was also a child sexual abuse offence. The recidivism rates for such offenders are generally low, but are prone to fluctuation since the number of such offenders released each year is small.
Table 1: Two-year and five-year recidivism rates of local offenders incarcerated for child sexual abuse offences, and whose re-offending offence is also a child abuse offence.
Table 1: Two-year and five-year recidivism rates of local offenders incarcerated for child sexual abuse offences, and whose re-offending offence is also a child abuse offence.
Recidivism Rate/Cohort | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Two-year | 1.1% | 2.9% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 3.2% | 1.9% | 4.5% | 2.1% | 1.5% |
Five-Year | 1.1% | 2.9% | 2.0% | 6.3% | 4.8% | 3.8% |
Note: The two-year and five-year recidivism rates for the 2023 and 2024 release cohort are not available yet.
[1] Recidivism rate is defined as the percentage of local inmates who were released in any particular year, and who were subsequently convicted and imprisoned or detained again for a new offence. The data on 10 - year recidivism rates is not available as this is not a commonly used benchmark to measure recidivism.