Written Reply to Parliamentary Question on Convictions from Total Number of Crime Cases Reported from 2010-2015 by Mr K Shanmugam, Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Law

Question:

Mr Low Thia Khiang: To ask the Minister for Home Affairs (a) what is the number of convictions from the total number of crime cases reported from 2010-2015; and (b) what is the number of convictions broken down by the different types of crime reported from 2010-2015.

Answer:

1. The Police report the crime statistics annually, broken down into the different crime classes. This information is available on https://data.gov.sg/dataset/overall-crime-cases-crime-rate .

2. Between 2010 and 2015, the conviction rate of persons charged in Court was about 97%.

3. The Member has asked for a comparison between the number of convictions and the total number of crime cases reported. This is not likely to be meaningful for various reasons, including:

a. Multiple cases attributed to the same offender.

b. Not all reported cases require arrests and prosecution. For example, there are, not infrequently, unmeritorious Police reports, and other cases, which for many reasons, result in no further action.

c. Even where investigations are necessary, prosecution may not be the most appropriate option. For example, over 80% of cases (running into several thousands) involving young people are not prosecuted, for reasons which have been publicly disclosed.

4. Thus, Police do not actively track the comparison between the number of all Police reports made versus the number of convictions – which as has been stated earlier, is not a meaningful comparison.