London police
London police Flickr/Creative Common

Repeat offenders were responsible for more than half a million crimes in the UK, with over half carried out by career criminals with more than 25 offences, figures have shown.

These included 3,400 serious sexual or violent offences, with one fifth of those re-caught being juveniles, the figures for 2009 released today by the Ministry of Justice.

Separate figures showed that 134 dangerous criminals were suspected of carrying out further offences such as murder, rape and other violent crimes despite being monitored by authorities in 2010/11.

It is the first time that such figures have been released and showed that more than 270,000 offences were by criminals who had at least 25 previous cautions to their name.

The figures broken down reveal that more than 8,000 sex offenders went on to commit further 1,200 sex crimes, including 330 against children.

Of the 134 dangerous or sexual offenders charged with a serious further offence last year, 26 were managed with regular multi-agency public protection meetings, other figures showed.

Three of these were assessed posed as the highest risk to the public. Eight serious case reviews were ordered after the offenders went on to either attempt or succeed in killing and raping again despite being monitored.

The figures also showed that more than 10,000 burglars went on to commit another 1,800 domestic burglaries within a year, and almost 3,000 thefts.

More than 6,000 serious violent offenders went on to commit more than 650 violent offences, 48 of which were classed as serious.

It is estimated that the summer's riots will result in numbers behind bars increasing by 1,000 for the next 12 months.

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