3.1.3 Crime in India: NCRB patterns and trends, crimes against women and children, victimology and compensation

Explained

1. NCRB: how it came about and what it does. NCRB was formed on the recommendations of the National Police Commission (1977–81) and an MHA task force (1985), by merging the Directorate of Coordination Police Computers, the CBI's Inter-State Criminals Data Branch and Central Finger Print Bureau, and the statistical wing of the BPR&D. It keeps national databases of crime and criminals, runs CCTNS and ICJS, and trains police in IT. Crime in India has been published since 1953 (data for 1953); NCRB took it over in 1986.

2. Reading crime statistics with care.

• They show recorded crime, not all crime. A rise may mean more reporting (better access, online FIRs, women's help desks) rather than more crime; a state with honest registration can look worse.
• The principal offence rule hides the lesser offences in a case (for example a murder after rape counts only as murder).
• The crime rate (per lakh population) is fairer than raw numbers when comparing states.
• Since 1 July 2024, cases are registered under the BNS, so heads from 2024 data onward follow BNS sections; old and new series must be matched carefully.

3. Crimes against women and children in the data.

• Women (NCRB heads): cruelty by husband or relatives (now BNS 85–86), kidnapping and abduction of women, assault with intent to outrage modesty (BNS 74), rape (BNS 63–64), dowry deaths (BNS 80), offences under the Dowry Act, 1961, the Domestic Violence Act, 2005, the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956, the Indecent Representation of Women Act, 1986, the Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987, and POCSO cases with girl victims. The laws themselves are explained in SOC-WO-03 (dowry, cruelty, domestic violence) and SOC-WO-05 (rape, acid attack, stalking under the BNS).
• Children: kidnapping and abduction (many are runaway and missing children), POCSO, 2012 offences, child labour, child marriage (Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006), and offences under the JJ Act, 2015 (cruelty, use of children by gangs). In POCSO cases the offender is usually known to the child.
• Victimless crimes: offences where the "victim" consents or no person complains, such as prostitution, gambling and drug use (Edwin Schur; see CR-CB-02).

4. Agencies and aids for investigation.

• Scientific aids: fingerprints, DNA profiling (CDFD, Hyderabad), ballistics, toxicology, handwriting and document examination, cyber forensics, CCTV and call-detail records. Lie-detection tests (polygraph, narco-analysis, brain mapping) need consent after Selvi, and their results are not evidence by themselves.
• BNSS changes: zero FIR and e-FIR (s.173), videography of search and seizure (s.105), forensic visit for serious crimes (s.176(3)).

5. Victim typologies.

Mendelsohn (1956), by the victim's share of guilt:

1. Completely innocent victim (a child, an unconscious person);
2. Victim with minor guilt / victim through ignorance;
3. Victim as guilty as the offender / voluntary victim (suicide pact);
4. Victim more guilty than the offender (the provoker);
5. Most guilty victim (an attacker killed in self-defence);
6. Imaginary / simulating victim (one who falsely claims to be a victim).

Von Hentig (1948), by vulnerability: general classes: the young, the female, the old, the mentally defective or deranged, immigrants, minorities, dull normals; psychological types: the depressed, the acquisitive (greedy), the wanton, the lonesome and heartbroken, the tormentor, and the blocked, exempted or fighting victim. His point: the victim is not always passive; the victim's traits and conduct help shape the crime.

Kinds of victimisation: primary (harm from the crime), secondary (further harm from the police, courts, media or hospitals, for example repeated questioning of a rape survivor), tertiary (lasting harm to family and community).

6. From restitution to State compensation.

• In early law (the Code of Hammurabi; Anglo-Saxon wergild) the offender paid the victim or the family. As the State took over prosecution, fines went to the State and the victim became the "forgotten party".
• Margery Fry (English penal reformer) argued for State compensation in the 1950s; New Zealand (1963) set up the first scheme, followed by Britain (1964).
• India:
  • CrPC 357 / BNSS 395: the court may use the fine to pay the victim, or order the offender to pay compensation even when no fine is imposed;
  • CrPC 357A / BNSS 396: every State, with the Centre, runs a Victim Compensation Scheme; the court recommends, and the DLSA/SLSA decides; a victim can claim even when the offender is not traced or no trial takes place; interim relief (first aid, medical help) can be given at once;
  • compensation for acid attack and rape victims is in addition to any fine (old 357B);
  • CrPC 357C / BNSS 397: all hospitals, public or private, must give free first aid and treatment to acid attack and rape victims (refusal is an offence, BNS 200);
  • the victim may appeal against acquittal, a lesser offence or inadequate compensation (proviso to old CrPC 372, now BNSS 413).
• Courts: Rudul Sah (1983) and Nilabati Behera (1993): State pays compensation for illegal detention and custodial death under Article 32/226; Hari Kishan (1988): courts should use s.357 liberally; Delhi Domestic Working Women's Forum (1995): a scheme to compensate rape victims; Ankush Gaikwad (2013): a court must consider compensation in every criminal case and record reasons; Suresh v. State of Haryana (2014): interim compensation; Nipun Saxena (2018): the NALSA scheme for women victims (2018) to apply across India.
• NALSA scheme (2018), minimums: rape ₹4 lakh, gang rape ₹5 lakh, acid attack with face disfigurement ₹7 lakh, loss of life ₹5 lakh.