Sex offenders' recidivism rate falls

The recidivism rate among sex offenders has dropped somewhat over the past year due in part to stronger oversight by the police, data showed Sunday.

According to the National Police Agency (NPA), a total of 24,471 sex offenders have been arrested nationwide since November last year. Of that total, 1,556 offenders were found to have committed the same crime before, marking a recidivism rate of 6.35 percent.

Over the same period between 2011 and 2012, the rate was 8.01 percent, according to the NPA.

Police officials attributed the drop in the recidivism rate to stronger oversight of convicted sex offenders, which began in November 2012 with the introduction of a special police team tasked with keeping track of offenders whose personal information is subject to registration with local authorities.

The personal data includes the offender's address, occupation and license plate number, among other details.

The new team was introduced nationwide following a public uproar over a series of brutal sex crimes against women and young children by convicted sex offenders.

Police officials also said they carried out a general inspection of all sex offenders subject to data entry three times over the past year and booked 343 people for not informing authorities of changes to their personal details. They also tracked down and arrested 135 out of 159 sex offenders whose whereabouts could not be determined.

"We will work with the Ministry of Justice and other relevant ministries to revise relevant laws to increase the frequency of checks from once every six months to more than once every six months, and continually increase the number of people on the special teams," an NPA official said. (Yonhap News)