More Singapore youths are shoplifting, driven by peer pressure and social media

Shoplifting is now one of the most common offenses among young people and accounts for the largest share of physical crime cases involving youth, according to the "Mid-Year Crime Brief 2025" released in late August by the Singapore Police Force.

Arrests of youths aged 10–19 for shop theft rose 41.1%, from 192 in the first half of last year to 271 in the first half of this year.

Psychologists explained that adolescents are neurologically more sensitive to reward and excitement, making them more likely to engage in risky behavior, according to Channel News Asia (CNA).

During adolescence, the brain’s reward system, which motivates and reinforces pleasurable behaviors, is "highly sensitive", making teens more inclined to choose activities that "feel good or fun," Vivien Yang, an educational and child psychologist at Bloom Child Psychology, told CNA.

More than half of the shop theft cases involved losses below $50. Commonly stolen items include food and beverages, alcoholic drinks, and personal care products. The retail outlet with the most reported cases recorded 36 incidents in the first half of 2025, the police said.

In one specific case shared with the CNA, a teenage boy stole some bottles of drinks from a store near his school but they were not for him. He told his psychologist that he was stealing them to give others with hope that they would accept him as their friends.

Social media has also emerged as a powerful influence. In 2021, a TikTok challenge went viral in Singapore, where participants showcased items they had stolen from schools, resulting in investigations into two teenagers.

In Singapore, penalties for theft range from fines and up to three years' imprisonment for minor offences, to harsher punishments such as caning and up to 10 years' imprisonment for robbery, depending on the severity and nature of the crime.