Police arrested 4,526 youths in 2007. This is an increase of 246 persons compared to the 4,280 youths arrested in the previous year. They accounted for 23% of the total persons arrested. This is a slight increase from the 22% registered in 2006, and continues to remain higher than the proportion of youth population in Singapore at 16%.

Similar to past trends, the three most common offences for which youths were arrested remained shop theft ( 1,332 persons), rioting (573 persons) and other theft (533 persons).

The Police also noted a rise in incendiary and explosion cases involving the use of sparklers committed by youths for the second year running. There were 43 such cases reported in 2007, compared to 32 cases in 2006⁶. 57 offenders were arrested for such cases and of these, more than 8 in 10 were youths.

6 There were 11 cases in 2005.

Last updated: 24 Nov 2008