My deepest gratitude first goes to Associate Professor Anthony Chin, who had faith to let me take my first step in this journey under his supervision. I am very thankful for his patience and encouragement in the writing of this thesis as well as his tutelage in the economics of crime. My grateful appreciation goes to Cholan as well, who has been very kind and patient. His insights into criminology had been an invaluable help in the writing of my thesis. I am also thankful to Desmond, Geoff, Yee KS and Li Yang for their help in sorting the data.
I would also like to thank my family, especially my parents, for always being very supportive of whatever I have done in my life. Without their moral support and encouragement, I would not have been able to achieve all that I had.
The completion of this journey would not have been possible without the help and encouragement of all my friends, who have accompanied me every step along the way. I am especially grateful to my best friend Karen, whose humour and wit cheered me when I encountered problems in my writing. My thanks goes to Randy for assisting me in the data analysis, Bee Kuan for reminding me to have lunch, Wanpei for inspiring me with her diligence and Alex for his IT assistance as well. Special thanks to Chee Kum too; who has taught me much about life and showed me what I can be.
Finally, many thanks go to those whose names I have not mentioned but have helped in my writing.
This has been an incredible journey.
Yeow Minyi
March 2005
NB: Just a quick update on my relationship with Prof C. When I met him on Monday to collect my "first" draft (after standing outside his office for 1h waiting for him - and he didn't apologise), he finally volunteered to give me his mobile number! He said that he thought he had given it to me all along. Also, when I asked him if I should cut my thesis discussion to make the page limit, he said that he will try not to do that because he knows that I have put in alot of effort in the discussion and he wants the other marker to know that too. He actually mentioned that he knew I put in alot of effort! Maybe things aren't that bad afterall between us. (",)