Annual Number of Arrests and Police Reports Made for Violent Offences by Minors and Non-minors

9 Ms Hazel Poa asked 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.

Mr K Shanmugam: 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 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.

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

Table 2 below 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.

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