One in four people arrested last year for violent sex crimes against children was a repeat sex offender, according to a report Friday by the National Police Agency.

A total of 466 sex-crime arrests were made in 2004 in cases involving victims who were 12 years old or younger. Of the suspects, 120 had previous arrests for sex crimes.

In an attempt to prevent such recidivism, the NPA will start a new program with the Justice Ministry in June to keep an eye on sex offenders by tracking their whereabouts after release.

The police and the ministry agreed to start the program, despite privacy concerns, following the kidnap-murder of a schoolgirl in Nara last November; a convicted pedophile was arrested in the case.

The NPA survey covered four types of sex crimes: rape, molestation, kidnapping with the aim of molestation, and rape-robbery.

It re-examined the criminal records of the 466 people for past sex offenses.

Police statistics have defined repeat offenses as those that are committed for the same type of crime. Thus, a molestation by someone previously convicted of rape was not counted as a repeat offense.

Of the 466 sex offenders arrested in 2004, 193, or 41.4 percent, had criminal records of some kind. A total of 74 people, or 15.9 percent, had sexually assaulted children before.

When other sex crimes, including those involving grown-ups, underwear thefts and other sex offenses were included, 120, or 25.8 percent, were found to be repeat offenders.

In a separate survey, the NPA examined the records since release of 506 sex offenders caught committing sex crimes involving children between 1982 and 1997.

Nearly half, 240 of them, had again committed crimes, including thefts, robbery and sex offenses.

Those arrested or indicted for rape or molestation after release totaled 103, and 47 of them preyed on children.

On the grounds these figures testify to a high recidivism rate among sex offenders, the NPA plans to keep tabs on released convicts to the highest extent possible, on the basis of information provided by the Justice Ministry, officials said.

Information will be provided on more than 100 people released from prison each year.(IHT/Asahi: March 5,2005)