Crime in India Data, 2018

Source: The Hindu

Manifest pedagogy: This time NCRB report 2018 has come in a little gap with that of 2017. Data of this report is the fodder for the questions or the data can be used to enrich our answers pertaining to the questions on crime and internal security.

In news: NCRB has released “Crime in India” data for 2018.

Findings of the report:

Crime has increased by 1.3% in 2018 compared to 2017 with the registration of over 50 lakh cognisable crimes.
The crime rate per lakh population was down to 383.5 in 2018 from 388.6 in 2017.
A total of 50.74 lakh crimes, including 31.32 lakh under the IPC and 19.41 lakh under the Special Local Laws (SLL) was registered in 2018.
During 2018, registration of cases under IPC have increased by 2.3% whereas SLL crimes have declined by 0.1% over 2017.
Accidental deaths have seen a rise of 31.1% from 30.3% in 2017.
Kerala and the National Capital Region having the highest crime rates in the country.

Crimes against women:

The crime rate per lakh women increased to 58.8 in 2018 in comparison with 57.9 in 2017.
Better reporting led to a 15% increase in the total crimes against women across all States (this number went up by 66% in Uttar Pradesh).
Crimes against women fell by 20.8% in Delhi.
Majority of cases under crimes against women were registered under ‘Cruelty by Husband or His Relatives’ (31.9%) followed by ‘Assault on Women with Intent to Outrage her Modesty’ (27.6%), ‘Kidnapping & Abduction of Women’ (22.5%) and ‘Rape’ (10.3%).

Murder:

The number of murders was up by 1.3% over 2017 of which, disputes were reported as the motive of the highest number of murder cases followed by personal vendetta and enmity and gain.
The northeastern States such as Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Tripura and Meghalaya have a relatively higher murder rate compared to most States.
Other States which have a worrisome record here include Jharkhand (4.6 murders per one lakh population, the highest in the country) and Haryana (3.9). Among cities, Patna (4.4) has an egregious murder rate.

Crime against Children:

The crime rate per lakh children population increased to 31.8 in 2018 in comparison with 28.9 in 2017.
Major crime heads during 2018 were Kidnapping & Abduction (44.2%) and cases under the POSCO Act, 2012 (34.7%) including child rape.

Crime/Atrocities against Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs):

Simple hurt with 30.6% (13,078 cases) registered the highest number of cases followed by SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act with 9.8% and criminal intimidation with 7.3% during 2018.
Among STs simple hurt (1,429 cases) registered the highest number of cases accounting for 21.9% followed by rape with 15.4% (1,008 cases) and assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty with 13.1% (857 cases) during 2018.

Economic Offences:

Forgery, cheating and fraud accounted for maximum cases followed by criminal breach of trust and counterfeiting during 2018.

Cyber Crimes: During 2018, 55.2% of cyber-crime cases registered were for the motive of fraud, followed by sexual exploitation with 7.5% cases and causing disrepute with 4.4% cases.

Rioting:

There has been a marginal decrease in the total cases related to rioting from 2016 (61,974) to 2018 (57,828).
Cases related to caste and communal/religious riots, political violence and agrarian conflicts registered a dip while there was an increase in industrial rioting and other personal disputes.

Offences against the State:

There has been an increase of cases under “sedition” with the number of those booked in 2018 double that of 2016.
Most such cases under this section came under the “Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act”.
Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh are leading with nearly half of the overall cases.

Agrarian sector:

Farm sector accounted for 7.7 percent of the total number of suicides in the country.
2018 figure (10,349 farmers) is less in comparison to 2016 data (11,379 farmers).
States like West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Meghalaya, Goa, Chandigarh, Daman & Diu, Delhi, Lakshadweep and Puducherry UTs have reported zero suicides of farmers/cultivators as well as agricultural labourers.

Suicides:

- A total of 1,34,516 suicides were reported in the country in 2018, showing an increase of 3.6 percent in comparison to 2017.
- Majority of suicides were reported in Maharashtra, followed by Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka.