3 Clearance rate

The clearance rate used to be around 70% for total penal code offenses but then turned to a declining trend from 1988. It then 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 total penal code offenses and 19.8% for non-traffic penal code offenses. However, the clearance rate then started to rise in 2002. It then remained fairly stable (50.9 to 52.4% for total penal code offenses) from 2006, and was 52.4% (up 0.3 points from the previous year) for total penal code offenses and 31.3% (down 0.1 points (id.)) for non-traffic penal code offenses in 2011 (See Fig. 1-1-1-1).