One in Four Property Crime Cases Fully Recovers Damages... Highest Since Statistics Compilation

[Asia Economy reporters Seongpil Cho and Gyumin Oh] It has been revealed that the police fully recovered the proceeds of crime in one out of every four cases involving property crimes such as theft, fraud, and embezzlement that occurred last year. This is the highest recovery rate since related statistics began to be compiled in 2011.

According to the '2021 Crime Statistics' released by the National Police Agency on the 10th, a total of 574,472 cases causing property damage (robbery, theft, extortion, damage, fraud, embezzlement, breach of trust, and possession of stolen goods) were recorded last year. This represents a decrease of about 12.3% compared to 654,909 cases the previous year. By crime type, fraud accounted for more than half with 294,075 cases (51.2%). This was followed by theft with 166,409 cases (29%) and damage with 54,188 cases (9.4%).

The police initiated recovery efforts for 347,007 cases last year. Among these, cases where the entire amount of damages was recovered totaled 94,732, accounting for 27.3% of the total. This is the first time the full recovery rate has exceeded 25%. Since the full recovery rate was 3.4% when statistics began to be compiled in 2011, it has shown an increasing trend every year. Looking at the past five years, the rate surpassed 20% in 2017, then rose slightly to 21.5% in 2018, 22.7% in 2019, and 22.8% in 2020, before sharply increasing last year.

The full recovery rate of crime proceeds was particularly high in theft cases. Out of 104,013 theft cases where recovery efforts were initiated, all damages were recovered in 60,826 cases. This corresponds to a rate of 58.4%. In embezzlement cases, full recovery was achieved in 7,788 out of 23,124 cases (33.7%). The full recovery rate for damage cases also exceeded 30%. On the other hand, the full recovery rate for fraud cases, which occurred most frequently, was only 8.4%. This is analyzed to be due to the nature of the crime, where the amount of damage is large and recognition of the fact is delayed compared to other crimes.

The full recovery rate of crime proceeds is expected to gradually increase in the future. This is due to the shift in the police investigation paradigm from focusing solely on arresting offenders to protecting and restoring victims. In fact, the police are expanding infrastructure by increasing dedicated personnel for tracking and preserving crime proceeds. Currently, dedicated personnel are assigned at each of the 258 police stations nationwide, working in coordination with the Crime Proceeds Tracking Investigation Teams of each provincial police agency to pursue tracking and preservation of crime proceeds. As a result, the number of seizure and confiscation preservation cases, which are the initial steps in recovering crime proceeds, increased by more than 30% to 452 cases in the first half of this year compared to the same period last year.

However, the perception that it is difficult to recover damages even if property is harmed by crime still exists. Last year, there were 234,926 cases of property crime damages where no recovery was made at all. This means that even when the damage is recognized and recovery efforts are initiated, nearly seven out of ten cases did not recover a single won. Although the non-recovery rate has steadily improved since it reached 96.6% in 2011, it still remains at a level where "only the victim is the fool." A police official said, "We will continue to increase dedicated personnel and strengthen professional capabilities to maximize the recovery of citizens' property damages."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.