The rate of repeat crimes among offenders marked a record high of 41.5% last year, the Justice Ministry said in a white paper on crime released Friday. Meanwhile, the number of overall Penal Code offenses, excluding automobile-related crimes, remains on a downward trend, falling for the sixth consecutive year last year to 1.82 million cases, down 4.8%.

The number of murders, however, increased 8.2% from 2007 to 1,297. The number of foreign nationals apprehended for committing Penal Code offenses except for traffic violations decreased to 12,611, down 5.5%. They accounted for 3.7% of all non-traffic law violators last year.

Among the some 340,000 Penal Code offenders apprehended last year excluding those breaking traffic laws, about 141,000, or 41.5%, were repeat offenders, marking the highest rate since 1968 when relevant data became available.

The white paper stressed the need to prevent recidivism Friday as part of efforts to reduce crime as some 54% of inmates in Japanese prisons are repeat offenders.

This year’s report stressed the importance of recidivism prevention focusing on theft and violation of the stimulants control law—the two types of crime with a high tendency of recidivism.

Last year, 174,738 people were apprehended for committing thefts, while 11,231 people were identified as violators of the stimulants control law.

Among stimulants control law offenders, 154 of the 519 surveyed, or about 30%, reengaged in criminal activities of whom 128, or over 80 percent, committed drug violations again.

The white paper also looked into the backgrounds of these offenders, such as their employment status and other conditions.

The result showed that for theft offenses, 14.5% of those steadily employed committed theft again, compared with 20.3% for those with irregular employment and 28.2% for those unemployed.

Stimulants control law violators showed the same tendency, with the comparable figures being 17.1% for those steadily employed, 23.4% for those with irregular employment and 29.5% for those unemployed.

Via Japan today