3 Clearance rate

The clearance rate used to be around 70% overall for penal code offenses, but was on a declining trend from 1988. It has 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 level 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 52.1% for all penal code offenses) from 2006, and was 52.1% (up 0.3 points from the previous year) for all penal code offenses and 31.4% (down 0.6 points (id.)) for non-traffic penal code offenses in 2010 (See Fig. 1-1-1-1).