Criminal Sentencing Laws in Singapore

The sentencing of an offender plays a vital role in Singapore’s criminal process. The court follows four guiding principles in the sentencing process: deterrence, prevention, rehabilitation, as well as retribution. Deterrence seeks to discourage both the offender from re-offending, and other members of society from committing the offence in question. Prevention applies to imprisonment sentences, whereby the offender will be unable to commit any further crimes during his incarceration. Rehabilitation refers to the possibility of imposing a sentence that will help the offender undergo reform, and mould him into a law-abiding member of society. Lastly, retribution stipulates that the offender has to be appropriately and proportionately punished for the crime that he committed.


Apart from the above principles, the court also looks at different factors in determining the sentence to mete out to an offender. They include the punishment prescribed under statute (mainly the Penal Code), factors relating to the offence in question and the offender himself, the number of offences which the offender has been charged with, sentences received by any accomplices, as well as sentences given in past cases involving a similar offence.


Factors relating to the offence and the offender will include aggravating and mitigating factors. Aggravating factors indicate the gravity of the crime for which the offender is being charged with. There are four main aspects regarding the gravity of a crime: the degree of seriousness of the offence; the manner in which it was committed (e.g. a higher level of brutality in committing the offence of culpable homicide will warrant a heavier sentence); the degree of seriousness of the consequences of the crime; and public interest. The court will take into account the facts of each case to determine the appropriate sentence for the offender, within the range of punishment prescribed for that specific offence.


Mitigating factors, on the other hand, are factors which an accused is given credit for. There are two types of mitigation factors: those that are personal to the offender, as well as those that mitigate the seriousness of the offence. Personal mitigation factors relate to the offender rather than the offence. For example, the offender may be a person of good character or suffer from psychiatric illnesses. His response to the offence and the prosecution will also be taken into account; for example, whether he showed remorse and cooperated with the police. A good criminal lawyer will always be sure to apprise the court of as many mitigating factors as are applicable in an offender’s case.

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About Criminal Law

Philip Ben is young law practitioner and writes mostly on subjects related to Laws in Singapore, specially the Criminal Law and criminal procedures. Besides, he loves to read book, travel and cycling.