VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN SINGAPORE

Mrs Yu-Foo Yee Shoon asked the Minister for Home Affairs what is the position of violence against women in Singapore.

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Home Affairs (Assoc. Prof. Ho Peng Kee) (for the Minister for Home Affairs): Mr Speaker, Sir, crimes of violence against women can be grouped into two categories, namely, sexual offences and other offences.

Sexual offences committed are mostly rape and outraging of modesty. For rape, in 1991, there were 74 cases and in 1992 there were 80 cases, the figures for both years were lower than 1990 when there were 111 cases. Therefore, the numbers have come down. In the first 10 months of this year, there were 69 reported cases.

Sir, the number of outraging of modesty cases rose from 716 in 1990 to 774 in 1992. However, Police point out that one factor explaining the increased figures is that more women are now prepared to come forward and report such offences due to changes in public attitude towards such crimes and the easy access to Neighbourhood Police Posts. Since the Member has asked specifically about violence, she would be assured to know that only about 20% of these outrage of modesty cases involved violence.

Sir, as for non-sexual offences, women were victims in about 15% (seven victims) of the murder cases in the first 10 months of 1993. For offences of voluntarily causing grievous hurt, females constituted 20% of the victims (51 victims) during the same period.

Sir, the statistics therefore suggest that the situation of violence against women in Singapore is well under control and has not changed significantly in recent years. The Police will continue to monitor the situation.