More support for inmates to reduce intergenerational offending risk

Children with parents who had offended more likely to face justice system: Minister

- Samuel Devaraj

More support will be given to prison inmates and their families to cut the risk of intergenerational offending, after studies showed a high rate of criminality among children with drug-abusing parents.

Speaking on Sept 2 at the opening of the International Corrections and Prisons Association Annual Conference, Second Minister for Home Affairs Josephine Teo told participants that a 2019 study by the Singapore Prison Service (SPS) found that 22 per cent of children with drug-abusing parents had committed offences.

"A separate study by the Ministry of Social and Family Develop ment (MSF) in 2020 found similar concerns," she said.

"Children whose parents had offended criminally were three times as likely to have contact with the criminal justice system themselves in the future, as compared with other children."

Mrs Teo was referring to a landmark study by MSF and the Namark study by MSF and the National Council of Social Service of close to 94,000 parents and about 183,000 of their children.

Researchers found that children with a father who was convicted of his offences were 2.7 times as likely to be convicted of an offence themselves. This rose to 3.7 times if their mother was the one convicted.

Mrs Teo told participants of the conference that Singapore's approach to correction goes beyond incarceration.

It includes efforts to rehabilitate and reintegrate former offenders into society, to reduce the risk of them going back to a life of crime.