Crime in India 2022: Volume III

FOCUS

The three-volume report Crime in India 2022 was published by the National Crime Records Bureau, an agency under the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India on December 2023. Set up in 1986, the NCRB functions as a national repository of crime data, meant to provide information-technology support to the Indian Police. This is the 70th edition of Crime in India report, the first of which was published in the year 1953.

The crime statistics are based on crimes recorded and reviewed by police agencies at different levels across 36 states and union territories during the year 2022. This data was compiled and verified by the NCRB between January and June 2023, and the report was then made available on the Bureau’s official website. It also contains statistics on 19 metropolitan cities with a population of two million or more according to Census 2011 – including Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Coimbatore and Delhi.

In the preface, the report lists a few of its own limitations. Firstly, the statistics in the report follow the Principal Offense Rule – which means that for any criminal incident comprising multiple offenses, only the crime with the highest penalty has been recorded. Further, the overall statistics have not been weighted for the gravity of crimes. Thus, comparative judgements on the severity of crime in different regions should not be made solely on the basis of the report’s numbers. Additionally, crime rates refer to crimes reported; higher rates could thus be attributed to better systems of reporting and recording crime and not necessarily a greater incidence of crime in an area.

This 516-page document is the third volume of the 2022 report. It is divided into nine chapters and includes data on Crime in Railways (Chapter 12A and 12B); Crimes Against and By Foreigners (Chapter 13A and 13B); Human Trafficking (Chapter 14); Missing Persons (Chapter 15); Custodial Crimes & Complaints Against Police Personnel (Chapter 16A); Injuries & Casualties of Police & Civilians and Incidents of Police Firing/Lathi-charge (Chapter 16B); Disposal of Cases By Police (Chapter 17); Disposal of Cases By Courts (Chapter 18); Arrests, Convictions & Acquittals of Persons (Chapter 19A and 19B); Recidivism (Chapter 19C); Property Stolen and Recovered (Chapter 20A), Seizures by Police (20B); and Seizures and Prosecution (Chapters 20C and 20D). 

    FACTOIDS

  1. The rate of IPC (Indian Penal Code) crimes saw a decrease between 2021 and 2022, from 268 cases per lakh population to 258.1 cases per lakh population.

  2. The rate of crime registered by Government Railway Police across India was 4.9 cases per lakh population, with the highest rates in Maharashtra (15.8) and Delhi (15.4).

  3. The rate of crime registered by the Railway Protection Force across India was 52 cases per lakh population, with the total number of cases at 7,17,328.

  4. The number of crimes committed against foreigners saw a jump from 150 cases in 2021 to 190 in 2022, with the highest numbers registered in Delhi (40 cases), Karnataka (28 cases), Himachal Pradesh (21 cases) and Maharashtra (21 cases).

  5. The number of crimes committed by foreigners saw a reduction from 2,585 in 2021 to 2,100 in 2022. The highest numbers of these cases were registered in West Bengal (723 cases), Delhi (256 case), Karnataka (194 cases), Maharashtra (149 cases), Tamil Nadu (123 cases), Himachal Pradesh (100 cases) and Tripura (98 cases).

  6. The report states that 2,250 cases of human trafficking were registered by AHTUs (Anti-Human Trafficking Units) across the country, with the highest numbers in Telangana (391 cases), Maharashtra (295 cases), and Bihar (260 cases).

  7. The report states that 83,350 cases of missing children were reported in 2022 across India, of which 62,946 cases were of girl children. The highest number of cases were in West Bengal (12,455 cases), Madhya Pradesh (11,352 cases), Tamil Nadu (7,009 cases), Rajasthan (6,194 cases), Delhi (6,150 cases) and Bihar (6,000 cases).

  8. There were 341 reported cases of police officers killed on duty across India, with the highest numbers reported in Tamil Nadu (46 cases), Punjab (33 cases), Maharashtra (31 cases), Uttar Pradesh (29 cases), Bihar (24 cases), Gujarat (24 cases), Haryana (24 cases) and Rajasthan (23 cases).

  9. Reported cases of murder across India amounted to 55,789, with the highest number of perpetrators in the 18-30 years age group. The number of cases in which perpetrators were males was significantly high at 51,949 cases.

  10. Across the country, the amount of property reported to be stolen was valued at 5223.3 crores, of which 1882.5 crores worth of property was recovered. The states with the highest values of stolen property were Maharashtra (298.8 crores), Rajasthan (185.9 crores) and Karnataka (179 crores).


    Focus and Factoids by Andrea Fernandez.

AUTHOR

National Crime Records Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, New Delhi

COPYRIGHT

National Crime Records Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, New Delhi

PUBLICATION DATE

Dec, 2023

TAGS

#railways #crime-in-india #murder #police

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