Singapore sees 5.4% increase in physical crime in first half of 2025

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Physical crime in Singapore rose in the first half of 2025, with 10,341 cases reported from January to June as compared to 9,809 cases recorded in the same period last year, a 5.4 per cent increase, police said on Tuesday.

The first six months of the year saw an increase in knife crimes, rape, molestation and theft cases compared to the same period in 2024 in the multi-city state of over six million people.

In their mid-year crime brief released on Tuesday, the Singapore police said two murders were reported in the first half of 2025, compared with three during the same period in 2024.

The number of rape cases also rose in the first half of 2025 to 233, from the 188 cases during the same period in 2024, The Straits Times reported, citing police data. There were 401 rape cases for the whole of 2024.

Molestation cases have gone up, with 807 cases reported in the first half of 2025, an increase of 21.2 per cent compared with the 666 cases during the same period in 2024.

Police said victims knew their assailants in more than half of the cases.

Despite this, police said there was no discernible trend suggesting a degradation of (the) law-and-order situation.

Shop theft is still one of the top offences committed, with the 2,097 cases accounting for about one in every five cases of physical crime, it said.

This is an increase of 4.2 per cent compared with the 2,013 cases of shop theft during the same period in 2024.

There were 788 theft in dwelling' cases in the first half of 2025, an increase of 5.9 per cent from the 744 cases during the same period in 2024.