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Maharashtra Profile on Crime Against Women: Rape

Leena Mehendale, IAS

The crime of rape can be considered the most heinous crime against a
woman barring perhaps only her murder. The character of any society is
decided by the dignity of the women in the society and the security that
women get against the crime of rape. A continuous watch on the situation of
rape crimes is therefore of immense importance.

According to the crime statistics published by National Crime Records

Bureau, more than 15000 women get raped in one year. The investigation,
presentation before the courts and the actual justice delivery are processes
that are enormously delayed. According to the Crime Report of 1998, as
many as 5793 cases were pending with the police for investigation on
1.1.1999. Those pending in the courts on that date were 48685. It is further
noteworthy that out of nearly 10,000 rape cases decided by the courts in
1998 only 2577 were convicted. This means that compared with pending
cases the conviction rate is as low as 5 percent. The lower punishment even
in convicted cases is a matter of further worry.

1. Some vital statistics for the total crime profile of the country is as follows :-

  Total population in 1996 (mid-decade projection) = 99.09 crores

  Total crimes registered under IPC in 1998 = 17.80 lacs
  Rate of crime = 183 crimes per lac of population
  For Maharashtra the rate of crime was 202 crimes per lac of
population. This is higher than the all India average.
  Total rape cases registered in the entire country in 1998 = 15,031
  Rate of crime = 155 rape cases per one crore of population
  The rate of rape cases for Maharashtra in 1998 was 124 per one
crore of the population which is lower than the all India average.
  Considering that only women are victims of rape, the rate of crime
actually stands at double the above values.

2. On analyzing the available data about rapes committed in

Maharashtra during the last 10 years, one comes up with some important
findings which need to be considered by all those who are actively working
for reducing crime against women, especially rape.

Specially, following points can be noted.

  There are more than thousand rape cases per year in Maharashtra.
  During the last ten years, a total of 11,675 rapes were committed.
  Taking the 1996 population which was 9.27 crores, the average rate
of rape crimes was 126 per one crore.
  One disturbing fact that comes to the notice is a sudden increase in
the number of rape cases in majority of the districts during the year
1996.

Out of the 30 districts, then existing, only the districts of Ratnagiri,

Kolhapur, Sangli, Nanded and Osmanabad have not shown an increase
during 1996. These are also the districts registering a small number and a
smaller rate of rapes. It should be a matter of more detailed study by the
police, the sociologists and the NGOs as to why the 1996 figures of rape are
so high. What new situations or trends came up then which resulted in such
a sharp increase in the number of rapes?

The trend of sudden jump has started in 1995 itself. The districts of
Mumbai, Thane, Nasik, Amravati registered very high increase compared to
rape crimes committed during 1994.

The total number of rapes committed during the year 2000 is nearly
1400 which means that the number has once again reached the level of
1996.

All this will be seen from the line graph at Fig.1.

The above analysis speaks of rape cases in terms of absolute

numbers. It can facilitate the government to decide upon the quantum of
deployment of suitable investigative machinery, police personnel,
computerization, better forensic facility, higher budget, closer monitoring,
etc. in problem districts. A sociologist, however, is concerned more with the
rate of crimes. Different districts have smaller or bigger geographical area
and higher or lower population. Hence for a comparison, rate of crime
provides a different variety of indicators. A district having lower population
but higher number of rapes, is definitely a bigger problem to the sociologists
and they need to investigate the reasons for higher criminal mentality.

3. Crime rate

On carrying out the analysis of crime rate, it was found that -

  Throughout the decade, the districts of Raigarh, Kolhapur, Sangli

and Satara have remained the districts of low crime rate as well as lower
rate of number of rapes. These are also the districts where the rate in
1996 is lower than the 10 year average.

  In Ratnagiri the rates have steadily and steeply gone up, while in
Latur and Gadchiroli it has steeply come down.

  Sudden jumps, by more than double are seen between 1998 and
1999 in Nanded, Beed and Osmanabad.

  Nagpur and Amravati have a very high share in rapes, much beyond
their share in population. In that order, the real culprit districts appear
to be Nagpur, Amravati, Bhandara, Yavatmal, Chandrapur, Wardha and
Gadchiroli; while Thane also shares a little more in rapes than in
population.
  By and large, all the five districts of Nagpur Division and the two
districts Amravati and Yavatmal from Amravati Division have shown a
very large number of rapes as well as a very high rate of this criminality.

The districts Gadchiroli and Chandrapur that are predominantly tribal

districts have very high rate of rapes. Given the general feeling that the
crime incidence of rape is lower among tribal, this calls for a more detailed
study of those who were victims.

Fig. 2 gives the share of each district in the total number of rapes,
whereas fig. 3 and 4 are grade maps of Maharashtra showing the rate of
rape and the total number of rapes respectively in various districts.

4. Urban Scenario

Maharashtra has a very high rate of urbanization. Part of it is also

caused by large scale migration from other states and higher rate of
industrialization. Quite contrary to the common perception, the urban
scenario regarding rapes is not worse than the rural scenario. Instead we
have a mix of evidence which is discussed below :-

  A comparison is also made between the rapes committed in rural

and urban areas. Chart 7 give a comparison of rapes committed in major
cities of Maharashtra, namely, Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Solapur, Nasik,
Aurangabad and Amravati.

The total rapes committed in these cities during the last 10 years are
29% of total rapes in Maharashtra while the total population of these cities
was 32% of the total population of Maharashtra in 1996. A comparison
between the crimes committed in the whole of the district and those
committed in the city alone show that Pune city contributed for 60% of the
total crimes in Pune district, while Nagpur city contributed 48% of rapes in
Nagpur district. This proportion was 49% in Thane city (vis-a-vis Thane
district), 46% in Aurangabad city, 41% in Solapur city, 26% in Nasik and
18% in Amravati city. A Comparison of these figures with the female literacy
rate shows that all the cities have a fairly high female literacy rate. Surely,
the reasons for high rate of rapes cannot be attributed to lack of education
alone.

The reason is perhaps to be searched in terms of industrialization v/s

agro-based economy, tribal population, low economic growth, a larger divide
between high and low income groups and so on.

  Another important feature is a comparison of percentages of urban

to total rapes vs. urban to total population of these districts. Pune,
Solapur and Aurangabad have more rapes in urban areas than the urban
population share whereas Thane, Nagpur, Nashik and Amravati have
more rapes in rural areas. The rural parts of all these 4 districts have a
larger tribal population. This is also a pointer. Once again, more detailed
studies as to who were victims and who were accused is needed.

  Which districts have lowest rural female literacy rates? These are the
districts of Marathwada Division, namely, Aurangabad, Jalna, Parbhani,
Nanded, Beed, Latur and Osmanabad; all having less than 30% rural
female literacy. Except Gadchiroli, no other district has such low rates of
rural female literacy and yet, by and large, these are districts of low rape
rate except the highly industrial city of Aurangabad.

5. On comparing the incidence of rapes with the incidence of total crimes

in a district, it is seen that -
  The districts of Ratnagiri, Raigarh, Sangli and Kolhapur have low
incidence of total crimes as well as of rape.
  In contrast Gadchiroli and Bhandara, Sindhudurg and Ahmadnagar
have a low incidence of total crimes but very high incidence of rapes.

  Nanded, Akola, Parbhani and Beed show low rate of rapes but high
rate of total crime.

  Amravati, Yavatmal, Wardha have high rates in both.

6. So we can see what kind of analysis and implementation strategy is

possible. The existing crime records give us some district specific clues and
recommendations. For example, it suggests that -

(i) The Home Deptt. of Maharashtra may immediately take a review of

their police strength and efficiency of investigation including preventing
measures in the Nagpur and Amravati divisions so as to control the higher
rate of rapes in these Divisions.

(ii) Ratnagiri has shown a sharp increase in 1998. The reasons for such
increase in an otherwise peace-loving and women- respecting district like
Ratnagiri need to be searched. This can be taken up by the Supdt. of Police
of Ratnagiri.

(iii) Special efforts are needed to reduce the higher rate of crime in
Amravati (Rural) and Nagpur (both urban and rural).
(iv) Special study sould be undertaken to find out the socio-economic
profile of the victims and the accused in the tribal blocks of Amravati and
Nagpur divisions, as well as in tribal blocks of Nashik and Thane districts.

It will be worthwhile to compare this data with the situation in

Dhule which is also predominantly tribal district but with low rate of rapes.
It is pertinent to note that the tribals of Dhule district have slightly better
land-holdings than the tribals of other districts of Maharashtra.

7. In all the above analysis two factors are not being considered. In many
cases of rapes the societical conditions and the fear of stigma on the victim
girl prevent her and her family from making a complaint to the police. In
many cases they are also afraid of the humiliating manner and questions
that are asked by police and therefore refrain from making a complaint. In
many more cases the police closes the complaint without registering FIR and
without making further investigation butby stating that there was not
enough evidence to proceed with the cases. More cases of first two types will
come to light by a better awareness and sensitization programmes and
support systems which can be provided by the NGOs. For taking case of the
third type of cases, which are commonly called “NC― cases, it should
be made compulsory for the police to register FIR for each and every case of
complaint of rape made to them and bring up it before the court whatever be
the preliminary findings. It should also be compulsory to report of this data
on a monthly basis to NCRB who should then publish the same in their
annual reports. A comparison of the number of crimes recorded and the
number of “cases closed without investigation― can be a key indicator
about the working of the police in the district.

8. Surprisingly the district of Ahmadnagar as compared to other districts

was comparatively a low crime district (as far as rape was concerned) except
during 1996. This image of Ahmadnagar will now remain shattered forever
in the wake of recent incidence of collective and multiple rapes committed
by young dacoits on the women of village Kothewadi. This was a case of a
gang rape as well as mass rape which was so far unheard of in Maharashtra
and can be considered as the most obnoxious crime. It has so far, also
eluded all explanations of traditional types. The gory details of the incidence
are indicative of the new methods and psyche being brought into crime
scenario by the media depictions of women.

9. Some new aspects and some theoretical questions go beyond the analysis
of the data -

(I) There is a sharp increase in organized rape and sexual exploitation of

women. The incidence like mass rapes in Kothewadi is likely to repeat. It will
require a very different and concerted approach to prevent any such
incidence in future. It is quite obvious that such thinking and efforts have
not yet started.

(II) In recent past, we have also faced the sex scandals in Jalgaon (in
1994) and Satara (2001) in which women were given temptation of jobs,
were lured into sexual act and their photographs were taken in
compromising situations and they were subjected to further repeated
blackmails, rape and other forms of sexual exploitation. Such a criminal
activity went on for a long period of one to two years involving several girls
who were victimized and several males who had organized such
victimization. These cases came to light only after long periods had elapsed
and therefore became difficult to prove even though their gravity was much
higher.
(III) Perhaps the worst was not over. In Parbhani district, we heard the
case of one girl student being called by her several teachers to give her the
“most expected questions― for the next day’s. She was gangraped
by her own teachers. This incidence strikes at the very root of Indian culture
where it is believed that true knowledge comes only through a very pure
relationship and understanding between the teacher and the student.

10. Although the cases of gang rapes, mass rapes and scandals like the
above have started occuring with alarming frequency, the police has not yet
started maintaining separate or specialised investigations. This must be
started immediately so that the problem is monitored properly and its
solution is tried early.

11. It must be mentioned that this article is meant to analyse only the
profile of crimes against women which are brought up to the police. It does
not discuss the questions of -

(i) Poor rate of conviction.

(ii) Enormous delay in justice delivery.

(iii) Attitude and ethical/legal responsibility of the defence lawyers.

(iv) Efficiency or otherwise of the prosecution machinery.

(v) Inadequate monitoring by the apex courts.

(vi) Inadequate and at times faulty examination by the forensic agencies.

(vii) Faulty investigation and improper handling or mishandling of the

evidence material by the police.
 Each of these aspects are important in reducing the rate of crime and
ensuring proper justice. Each, therefore, merits a separate detailed study
and analysis.

[The author is Joint Secretary to Govt. of India in National Commission for

Women. This is part of her study on Maharashtra Profiles of Crimes Against
Women. ]
Geomatics 2000: Conference on Geomatics in Electronic Governance, January 2000, Pune
Crime Mapping and Analysis Using GIS
C.P. JOHNSON
Geomatics Group, C-DAC, Pune University Campus, Pune 411007
johnson@cdac.ernet.in
1. Introduction
The traditional and age-old system of intelligence and criminal record maintenance has
failed to live up to the requirements of the existing crime scenario. Manual processes
neither provide accurate, reliable and comprehensive data round the clock nor does it help
in trend prediction and decision support. It also results in lower productivity and
ineffective utilisation of manpower. The solution to this ever-increasing problem lies in
the effective use of Information Technology.
Geographic Information System (GIS) uses geography and computer-generated maps as
an interface for integrating and accessing massive amounts of location-based information.
GIS allows police personnel to plan effectively for emergency response, determine
mitigation priorities, analyse historical events, and predict future events. GIS can also be
used to get critical information to emergency responders upon dispatch or while en route
to an incident to assist in tactical planning and response. GIS helps identify potential
suspects to increase investigators suspect base when no leads are evident.
GIS plays an important role in crime mapping and analysis. Response capabilities often
rely on a variety of data from multiple agencies and sources. The ability to access and
process information quickly while displaying it in a spatial and visual medium allows
agencies to allocate resources quickly and more effectively. In the ‘mission-critical’
nature of law enforcement, information about the location of a crime, incident, suspect, or
victim is often crucial to determine the manner and size of the response. GIS software
helps co-ordinate vast amounts of location-based data from multiple sources. It enables
the user to layer the data and view the data most critical to the particular issue or mission.
It is used world over by police departments, both large and small, to provide mapping
solutions for crime analysis, criminal tracking, traffic safety, community policing,
Intranet/Internet mapping, and numerous other tasks.
GIS helps crime officers determine potential crime sites by examining complex
seemingly unrelated criteria and displaying them all in a graphical, layered, spatial
interface or map. It also helps them map inmate populations, fixtures, and equipment to
provide for the safety of inmates by separating gang members, identifying high-risk or
potentially violent inmates, and identifying hazardous locations in an area. It reduces the
potential for internal violence by providing better command and control. GIS functions,
when combined with capabilities of location identification devices such as GPS facilitate
tracking the movement of high-risk inmates or at-risk personnel throughout an area. It is
more cost-effective for the crime analyst to come up with the information than for patrol
officers to do it themselves.
Geomatics 2000: Conference on Geomatics in Electronic Governance, January 2000, Pune
Virtually every operational activity in the police department includes spatial
relationships. Traditionally, these activities have been supported by paper maps and pins.
Police officers now have the ability to immediately generate maps directly relevant to the
situation at hand. Police agencies collect vast amounts of data from many sources
including called-for-services, arrests, first information reports and daily report. Data in
this form, however, can be difficult to visualise. The same information displayed
graphically provides a powerful decision making tool for investigators, supervisors, and
administrators. The visual format shows relationships and patterns that are buried in the
data. GIS could also be used to explore the relationship between crime and the
environment.
1.1 Role of Internet/Intranet: Internet/Intranet capability enables an agency to serve
various information to substations and remote offices, and to serve maps regionally to
other agencies. It provides the ability to serve multiple applications from a single server
to any number of clients, and serve dynamic maps and data quickly on a variety of
servers. It also centralises the administration of both data and applications, and can easily
accommodate expansion of the system as the number of clients rises. Officers will be
able to access several reports including summaries of activity for a user-specified period,
lists of incidents occurring at a single address, and charts analysing day-of-week and
time-of-day relationships for aggravated assaults and robberies.
Another benefit of the Intranet-based application will be the team's ability to turn around
late-breaking information immediately. It helps distribute the mapping functions to each
of the district offices, enabling any officer or detective to generate customised maps. The
more information officers have, the better equipped they are to do their job. The
Intranetbased
application should be very secure and safe against unauthorised usage. To maintain
the confidentiality of information, access to the system could be controlled through
passwords.
2. Crime mapping
Maps offer crime analysts graphic representations of crime-related issues. An
understanding of where and why crimes occur can improve attempts to fight crime.
Mapping crime can help police protect citizens more effectively. Simple maps that
display the locations where crimes or concentrations of crimes have occurred can be used
to help direct patrols to places they are most needed. Policy makers in police departments
might use more complex maps to observe trends in criminal activity, and maps may
prove invaluable in solving criminal cases.
2.1 Display spatial patterns of events: Digital maps are the quickest means of
visualising the entire crime scenario. The locations of crime events, arrests, etc. can be
routinely displayed on maps. This provides an easy method of viewing activities in an
area rather than searching through a listing of events. Maps can also be used to convey
more than one type of information at a time. Crime locations can be symbolised
according to the day of week, type of crime, modus operandi (a particular suspect’s
method of operation when committing a crime) or frequency.
Geomatics 2000: Conference on Geomatics in Electronic Governance, January 2000, Pune
2.2 Integrate community characteristics: Community characteristics (for e.g., slums,
markets, colleges, parks, alcohol permit locations, red light area, etc.) can be routinely
displayed on maps while analysing crime patterns to interpret relationship between these
characteristics and the crime. For example, the locations of aggravated assaults, robberies
and alcohol permits can be displayed to see if crime is clustering around locations that
sell alcohol. Other mapping data such as bus routes and public housing can also be
displayed at the same time to analyse relationships between neighbourhood
characteristics and crime.
2.3 Produce thematic maps: Maps can be produced at any geographic level (e.g. Police
stations, divisions, or zones) to aid in the analysis of crime patterns. Each response area
can be shaded to represent the number of crimes that occurred in that area during a
specific time frame. The darker the shade, the more events that occurred within the
response area. These thematic maps can also be used to show the change in an area's
crime rate. The percent change in the number of crime incidents can be displayed by
shading each area according to whether there was an increase, decrease or no change.
3. Crime analysis
Crime Analysis is defined as a set of systematic, analytical processes directed at
providing timely and pertinent information relative to crime patterns and trend
correlations to assist the operational and administrative personnel in planning the
deployment of resources for the prevention and suppression of criminal activities, aiding
the investigative process, and increasing apprehensions and the clearance of cases. It
supports a number of department functions including patrol deployment, special
operations, and tactical units, investigations, planning and research, crime prevention,
and administrative services. Crime analysis can be divided into three categories:
Tactical: An analytical process that provides information used to assist operations
personnel (patrol and investigative officers) in identifying specific and immediate crime
trends, patterns, series, sprees and hotspots, providing investigative leads and clearing
cases. Analysis includes associating criminal activity by method of the crime, time, date,
location, suspect, vehicle, and other types of information.
Strategic: Concerned with long-range problems and projections of long-term increases or
decreases in crime (crime trends). Strategic analysis also includes the preparation of
crime statistical summaries, resource acquisition, and allocation studies.
Administrative: Focuses on provision of economic, geographic, or social information to
administration.
3.1 Perform radial analysis: GIS can be used to measure the extent and type of problem
within a certain distance around a particular location (e.g., street intersection, slum, bar,
etc.). The distance can be anything that one wants to use as a radius around a particular
location. For instance, we can quickly examine the type and number of offences and
arrests that occurred within 500m of a particular location. GIS allows an analyst to
quickly eliminate excess information. In addition to focusing on a single location, GIS
can also be used to examine events that occurred within a certain distance of multiple
Geomatics 2000: Conference on Geomatics in Electronic Governance, January 2000, Pune
locations. For example, an analyst can determine the number and types of offences that
have occurred within 500m of all schools. A radial analysis can also be performed to
determine which residents might need to be notified when a particular offender has
moved into the area.
3.2 Identify clusters of events (hotspots): GIS identifies areas that contain dense
clusters of events (hotspots). These high concentration areas usually demand special
police attention. For example, GIS allows an analyst to identify all of the areas in a police
station area where at least 5 robberies occurred within a 1km radius. These areas are then
outlined on the map. Using GIS to identify hotspots provides a consistent method to
measure concentrations of criminal events over time. Hotspots of violent crime, robbery,
residential burglary, commercial burglary, auto theft, rape, etc. can be calculated every
month for each police station area.
3.3 Compare locations of hotspots across time: Crime hotspots that have been
identified over several months can be displayed at the same time. This allows for the
identification of areas with chronic problems and indicates the direction in which a
particular crime may be shifting. These types of maps can also be used to solicit
resources for an area from other public and/or private agencies.
3.4 Compare hotspots of different crime types: Hotspots of different offence types can
be displayed to identify where they overlap. For instance, residential burglary hotspots
can be displayed along with robbery hotspots to discover where they overlap. A more
detailed analysis of these intersecting areas can then be performed.
3.5 Shade grid cell maps: While multiple crimes (or events) at the same location are not
visible on a pin map, they are clearly accounted for in a grid cell map. For instance, ten
thefts occurring at a single location would be represented by a single point on a pin map.
Using grid cell mapping, all ten thefts would be counted toward the total for the grid cell
that would determine the shade of the cell. The darker the shade, the higher the number of
incidents occurred at that particular location.
3.6 Analyse multiple variables: The relationship between one variable with another can
be analysed and this would indicate the strength and direction of the relationship between
the two variables. For instance one could analyse the relationship between the number of
alcohol permit locations and the number of fighting. Regression analysis is used to
predict the value of a dependent variable such as violent crime rate based on the values of
independent variables such as the poverty level within an area. Regressing allows for
additional variables like illiteracy, backwardness, habits, etc. to be included in the model.
The results of this type of analysis might be used to solicit resources from other
public/private agencies to help reduce the crime rate.
4. Crime investigation
Historically, the causes and origins of crime have been the subject of investigation. Some
factors known to affect the volume and type of crime occurring from place to place are:
Geomatics 2000: Conference on Geomatics in Electronic Governance, January 2000, Pune
Population density and degree of urbanization.
Racial heterogeneity.
Variations in composition of the population, particularly youth concentration.
Stability of population with respect to residents' mobility, commuting patterns, and
transient factors.
Modes of transportation and highway system.
Economic conditions, including median income, poverty level, and job availability.
Cultural factors and educational, recreational, and religious characteristics.
Family conditions with respect to divorce and family cohesiveness.
Climate.
Effective strength of law enforcement agencies.
Administrative and investigative emphases of law enforcement.
Policies of other components of the criminal justice system (e.g. prosecutorial,
judicial, correctional, and probational).
Citizens' attitudes toward crime.
Crime reporting practices of the citizenry.
GIS helps identify potential suspects to increase investigators suspect base when no leads
are evident.
4.1 Investigate serial offences: The home addresses, work addresses, and places
frequented by victims and suspects of serial offences can be displayed. When details of
both suspects and victims are viewed in this manner, intersections between the two can
be seen. The spatial patterns of less serious offences that often lead up to more serious
crimes can be examined. This is especially important since serial rapists often begin their
criminal careers committing other offences such as peeping tom incidents, indecent
exposures, or residential burglaries.
4.2 Predict behaviour: Based on the crime history, models can be developed to predict
behaviour of criminals. Using these models, the probable location of an offender's home
can be identified. The geographic area where the next crime is most likely to occur can
also be predicted.
4.3 Identify suspects: Crime data consisting of spatial patterns, suspect information and
method of operation characteristics can be combined with arrest locations to provide
investigators a tool to identify potential suspects. Investigators can quickly see hotspot
locations and the people who have been previously arrested for the particular crime
around these locations.
References
1. Using GIS to support community problem-oriented policing (www.charmeck.nc.us)
2. Law enforcement and criminal justice (www.esri.com)
3. Crime analysis (www.state.ia.us)
4. 1995 comparison of Iowa, regional and national crime rates (www.ci.gilbert.az.us)