Written Reply to Parliamentary Question on Number of Minors and Non-minors Arrested for Violent Offences in the Past Five Years

Question:

Ms Hazel Poa: To ask the Minister for Home Affairs in the last five years and with a breakdown by minors and non-minors respectively (a) what is the annual number of arrests for violent offences such as causing hurt, assault or rioting; and (b) what is the annual number of police reports made concerning violent actions such as causing hurt, assault or rioting.

Answer:

Mr K Shanmugam, Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Law:

1. The Police define violent offences as the commission of: (i) rioting-related offences under sections 146 to 148 of the Penal Code; and (ii) serious hurt offences under section 323A and sections 324 to 326 of the Penal Code. In the following, “minors” are defined as persons below the age of 18, while “non-minors” are those of or above the age of 18.

2. Table 1 shows the number of arrests of minors and non-minors for violent offences from 2019 to 2023.

Table 1: Number of arrests of minors and non-minors for violent offences between 2019-2023

3. Table 2 shows the number of police reports made concerning violent offences from 2019 to 2023, resulting in the arrest of at least one minor or where only non-minors were arrested, respectively.

Table 2: Number of police reports concerning minors and non-minors for violent offences between 2019-2023

4. The number of arrests for violent offences (whether for minors or non-minors) has been steadily decreasing since 2019.