The purpose of this study is to review the issues regarding the necessity of research on recidivism rates and to provide basic materials for the establishment of prevention measures for crime and re-offending by analyzing recidivism in violent crimes and studying recidivism patterns and prediction factors.

An analysis of the state of recidivism revealed that re-offenders accounted for approximately 60% of all cases and the ratio increased sharply in 2010 compared to the previous year. In an analysis of only criminal offenders, the ratio of re-offenders accounted for 68.1% in 2010. As such, establishment of prevention measures for re-offendered is a pressing issue.

Recidivism of released prisoners was analyzed by the rate of re-imprisonment within three years of release, which revealed that there should be separate risk assessment tools of recidivism for different types of crime, as recidivism prediction factors for offenders of violent crimes and for theft offenders.

In conclusion, in the official statistics in the Republic of Korea, measurement methods and statistical analysis items are not diverse enough to measure re-imprisonment rates for released prisoners and recidivism rates for probationers and facilitate in-depth studies on the factors that have an impact on recidivism. As important as recognizing the importance of research on recidivism is institutionalizing the application of computerized data in empirical research on both released prisoners and probationers, based on which scientifically-based corrections and probation policy and effective prevention measures for recidivism can be established.