Voyeurism takes place when you deliberately and wilfully intrude on someone’s privacy, for example you secretly record images or videos of someone else (man or woman) undressing without their knowledge or consent.

The offence of Voyeurism is currently found in section 377BB of the Penal Code in Singapore and the law makes no distinction between victims who are male or female i.e. you can be prosecuted regardless of the gender of your victim.

Common examples of Voyeurism include situations where you peep over a locked toilet cubicle to spy on the person inside in using it, where you use a mobile phone to secretly take photos or videos of a woman’s underwear while standing behind her on the escalator or where you secretly install a camera in your housemate’s room or bathroom to take photos or videos of him undressing or taking a shower.

Voyeurism can be punished with up to 2 years imprisonment with caning or a fine or both. Enhanced punishment involving mandatory imprisonment of up to 2 years will apply if your victim is younger than 14 years old.

Despite the severe punishments that can be imposed for Voyeurism, the Court has imposed probation as a sentence in some deserving cases – this will depend on a number of factors including whether you are a young offender or if there is an underlying psychiatric condition which caused or contributed to your commission of the offence.

If you would like to understand more about this subject and how the issues discussed in this article may affect you, get in touch with our lawyers today.