Electronic device for sex offenders proven effective

By Yun Suh-young

The electronic anklets placed on sex offenders have proven to be effective in keeping them from repeating sex crimes, the Ministry of Justice said Wednesday.

Marking the third year of implementing the electronic device on Sept. 1, the ministry said that after the adoption of the device, recidivism rate decreased to less than 1 percent.

“Compared to 14.5 percent of recidivism rate in sex offenders who did not wear electronic anklets, only 0.9 percent of those who wore the anklets were repeat offenders,” the report said.

When asked why they decided not to commit the same crimes again, 64.7 percent of the respondents said it was because they were certain to be caught by police due to the device, according to a survey by the ministry.

For the past three years, 1,526 criminals have been ordered to wear the monitoring device and 68.9 percent of them were sex offenders. Currently, 797 criminals wear the anklet and 434 of them are sex offenders.

As for the ages, those in their 30s and 40s accounted for 59.4 percent. The oldest man wearing the device is 86.

The number of criminals cutting off the anklets had decreased by one third after the devices were updated in October last year. There were repeated attempts by offenders to cut them off during the early stages of implementation in 2008.

Thanks to the improved design, however, many of the offenders were unable to detach the anklet and were arrested near their homes when they tried to do so, the ministry said.

As a measure to increase the level of monitoring of offenders, the ministry plans to place a “Beacon” antenna in all local subways in regions outside of Seoul this year to track even underground movement.

“It doesn’t mean the current location tracking method doesn’t work in subways. It does,” said the ministry spokesman. “But the current system lacks precision underground. The new antenna will be more accurate.”

The ministry also plans to modify the battery charging method to make it easier to replace batteries on the electronic anklets. The new battery will last up to 4,000 weeks compared to the current one which lasts 25 weeks at the longest.