Caning in Singapore

Corporal punishment with a rattan cane is a prominent and long-standing feature of Singapore life.

There are four different types of caning in Singapore. All apply to males only and are administered to the posterior.

• Judicial caning ordered by a court as a sentence for certain crimes as laid down in Singapore legislation. This is always combined with a prison sentence. It is always carried out privately in prison. There are no public canings.
• Prison caning for prisoners who break internal prison rules.
• Military caning for members of the Singapore Armed Forces who break military rules.
• School caning for disobedient schoolboys, inflicted by the school's Principal, Discipline Master or Operations Manager.

Judicial and prison canings are applied to the bare buttocks. Military caning is applied to the buttocks through a special cloth guard to reduce bleeding. School caning is delivered to the seat of the boy's ordinary school uniform trousers, or at some schools he has to change into PE shorts with no underpants to receive the punishment.