Prevention of recidivism is an extremely important issue in criminal justice policy. Furthermore, the establishment of effective measures to prevent recidivism has recently become a major social concern in Japan, especially since ex-prisoners and offenders under probationary/parole supervision have been responsible for several serious and high profile crimes in recent years.
  Although the prevention of recidivism was the main topic of the White Paper on Crime 1978 and 1988 as mentioned earlier, nearly twenty years have now passed with the social conditions of Japan having drastically changed. Therefore, it is now considered meaningful for criminal justice policy to revisit the problem of recidivism and carry out evidence-based analysis of the actual circumstances and attributes of repeat offenders, and establish effective countermeasures to them.
  Based upon the foregoing, this article will address various aspects of recidivism and its prevention in the five chapters as summarized below. Chapter 2 examines recent trends and the actual circumstances and attributes of recidivism using statistical data from the police, prosecution, courts, corrections and rehabilitation. Chapter 3 addresses the importance of recidivism prevention and analyzes recent trends with recidivism using computerized criminal record data and statistical information. An overview is provided of repeat offenders with respect to their type of offense, age, sentencing and attributes. As offense based analysis, special attention is paid to theft, injury/assault and Stimulants Control Act violations due to the number of such offenses being very large. Recidivism in regard to sexual offenses, which have recently gained a great deal of public attention, is also touched upon in Chapter 3. From the point of view of age group, young persons in their twenties and elderly persons of 65 years and over, who pose the greatest threat to society, will be focused upon, which will then be followed by an overview of the trends in recidivism for the different age groups. Furthermore, since the treatment of parolees is an important issue in preventing recidivism, the current situation with parole is examined and a follow-up study of parolees after their release is carried out. In Chapter 4, multiple homicide cases committed by the same offender are researched as typical examples of a serious offense. Although the number of homicide cases is small, they do cause the most serious damage to society. An attempt is made to reveal the characteristics of repeat homicide offenders by analyzing those serious cases from the viewpoint of the motive or cause of the murder, the relationship between the victim and the offender, the way in which the murder was committed and other various attributes. Chapter 5 gives an overview of current practices in preventing recidivism that have been employed by the prosecution, courts, corrections and rehabilitation, and also touches upon a multidisciplinary/multiagency approach to recidivism prevention by those agencies, organizations and bodies, including the private sector. In the same chapter current recidivism prevention measures taken in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States of America are introduced. Finally, in Chapter 6, this article concludes with a summary of the chapters and the future prospects of recidivism prevention in Japan.
  The purpose of this article is to provide the reader with fundamental information for use in discussing effective solutions to the above-mentioned issues and research on effective countermeasures to recidivism by analyzing in detail the real situation with recidivism and providing viewpoints of countermeasures to it.