Although the legal system of Singapore is a common law system, the criminal law of Singapore is largely statutory in nature and historically derives largely from the Indian penal code. The general principles of criminal law, as well as the elements and penalties of general criminal offences such as assault, criminal intimidation, mischief, grievous hurt, theft, extortion, sex crimes and cheating, are set out in the Singaporean Penal Code. Other serious offences are created by statutes such as the Arms Offences Act, Kidnapping Act, Misuse of Drugs Act and Vandalism Act.
Singapore retains both corporal punishment (in the form of caning) and capital punishment (by hanging) as legal penalties. For certain offences, the imposition of these penalties is mandatory. More than 400 people were executed in Singapore, mostly for drug trafficking, between 1991 and 2004. Statistically, Singapore has one of the highest execution rates in the world relative to its population.[1] Science fiction writer William Gibson famously described Singapore as "Disneyland with the death penalty".[2][a] Some scholars have argued that one of the results of robust regulations and interventions in Singapore is that the nation has one of the lowest incidences of violent crimes in the world.[3]
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