As Singapore served as the base for British war crimes investigations and prosecutions in Asia, the Singapore Trials dealt with war crimes committed not only in Singapore but in other locations through Asia. Based on available trial records, 30 Singapore Trials dealt with atrocities committed in part or wholly in Singapore. Many of these trials dealt with heinous crimes such as the Sook Ching massacre and Kempeitai torture. Some crimes, like the Alexander Hospital massacre, were considered for prosecution but not pursued due to lack of evidence.

A number of trials in Singapore dealt with cases involving the mass killing of civilians, such as Operation Sook Ching in Singapore and mass killings of civilians on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

A number of trials dealt with abuse and ill-treatment that did not result in the outright deaths of the victims.
 

In many cases, military and civilian personnel associated with the Japanese military were prosecuted for directly or indirectly causing the deaths of individual POWs and civilians.

Several Singapore Trials dealt with the ill-treatment and deaths of POWs and civilians who worked as labourers on large-scale work projects such as the infamous Burma-Siam Railway.

A substantial number of trials addressed the abuse and neglect of POWs and civilian detainees in prisons and camps, such as Changi Prison, Sime Road Prison, Outram Road Gaol, and Selarang Barracks.