The National Police Agency's 2014 white paper on crimes shows that the percentage of recidivists among people investigated for criminal offenses, except for those probed for traffic accidents, has been on a steady increase since 1997 — from less than 30 percent to a record 46.7 percent. At the same time, the report shows that convicts who are released early from prison on parole are less likely to commit additional offenses than those released after serving their full sentences.

The data point to a need to beef up efforts to assist offenders in their rehabilitation and readjustment to society. This is all the more important because the number of convicts released on parole will likely increase under a system created by the Criminal Law revision in 2013 that enables courts to hand down a combination of imprisonment, a suspended sentence and probation to people convicted of crimes that would normally carry a maximum prison term of three years.

According to the white paper, law enforcement authorities investigated 262,486 people last year in connection with criminal offenses excluding traffic violations. Of them, 139,848 were first-time offenders while the remaining 122,638 were recidivists. The number of multiple offenders has been on a decline since 2007, falling 5.7 percent in 2013 from 2012. The number of first-time offenders has been declining faster, with the 2013 figure representing a 10.9 percent year-on-year fall. These two trends translated into a record rate of recidivism.