3 Clearance rate

The clearance rate used to be around 70% overall for penal code offenses, but has been on a declining trend since 1988 on. It further declined as a sharp increase in the number of reported cases overwhelmed the capacity to clear them. The clearance rate reached a post WWII low in 2001 at 38.8% for all penal code offenses and 19.8% for non-traffic penal code offenses. The clearance rate then started to rise from 2002. It then remained stable (50.9 to 51.6% for all penal code offenses) from 2006 on and was 51.7% (up 0.9 points from the previous year) for all penal code offenses and 32.0% (up 0.4 points (id.)) for non-traffic penal code offenses in 2009 (See Fig. 1-1-1-1).