A Review of Outrage of Modesty Offenders Remanded in a State Mental Hospital

Abstract

Minor sexual offences have been increasing over the years. These include parasexual offences such as exhibitionism, frotteurism and its variant. In Singapore, a common minor sexual offence which involves touching, grabbing, kissing or fondling is known as outrage of modesty or molestation. To date no known studies have been made on this subtype of sexual offender. This is a five-year retrospective study looking into the profile of 157 outrage of modesty offenders remanded to Woodbridge Hospital, a state mental hospital. Results showed that schizophrenia was the predominant psychiatric diagnosis amongst the offenders (45.3%) followed by mental retardation (21.7%). Only 28.7% of those suffering from a mental illness experienced active psychiatric symptoms at the time of the sexual offence. Touching, stroking or fondling were the most frequently reported type of molestation (60.5%). The majority of the offences took place between 6 am and 6 pm. Only 15.3% had a past history of sexual offences and the majority (94.9%) were of sound mind at the time of the offence. There were no statistically significant differences between first time and repeat offenders with regard to age, ethnic group, educational level, marital status, diagnoses, place of offence, time and type of offence, soundness of mind and fitness to plead.