Some Characteristics of the Application of the Criminal Justice System in Singapore (From Selected Issues in Criminal Justice, 1985, P 14-23, Helsinki Institute for Crime Prevention and Control - see NCJ-133290)

• NCJ Number: 133292
• Author(s): W Clifford
• Date Published: 1985
• Length: 10 pages
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/; NCJRS Photocopy Services; United Nations European Institute for Crime Prevention and Control (HEUNI)
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: Finland

Annotation

Since gaining independence following World War II, Singapore has worked hard to brings its crime problems under control. At the time of independence, the country was threatened internally by subversion, gang warfare, revenge killings, extortion, and graft, and externally by foreign powers waiting to see the new government fall so they could take over.

Abstract

Young people, when drafted into compulsory national service, can serve either in the army or the police force. National discipline has resulted in an effective crackdown on Chinese triad gangs, many of which have emigrated to other cities. The criminal justice system has borrowed heavily from the Japanese use of neighborhood police boxes. The courts are fair, the probation service is good, and the prisons are efficiently organized for custody and production. New legislation has allowed the police force to attack widespread drug use and trafficking in Singapore. Singapore may be the only country attacking the drug problem from the demand rather than the supply side.