The whereabouts of more than 7,000 ex-convicts prone to recidivism are unknown, a police report showed Thursday.
Of 37,005 former convicts supposedly under police surveillance, the whereabouts of 7,163 are categorized as "unknown" because their given addresses and places of residence differ, according to the report submitted by the National Police Agency (NPA) to the parliament.
Police investigators try to monitor about 20,000 released sex offenders who are likely to repeat crimes and some 17,000 former convicts charged with eight major crimes including murder, robbery and arson.
The number of ex-convicts under police surveillance who cannot be located has grown steadily from 3,364 in 2009 to 7,163 in 2012, the report showed.
Police investigators collect and update information on such people every one or three months but cannot contact them in person if the former convict refuses permission.
"Most ex-cons do not have stable jobs due to their previous convictions. Thus, their addresses and where they reside many times do not match," an official at the NPA said. "We are enforcing our work in tracing their whereabouts."
Rep. Yoo Seung-woo of the Saenuri Party, who released the report, called on the law enforcement authorities to more actively monitor ex-cons and come up with preventive measures.
"We should come up with legal grounds to properly supervise ex-cons as prevention (of subsequent crimes) is more important than just apprehending the criminals," Yoo said in a release. (Yonhap)