Context: The annual report, ‘Crime in India’, released by the National Crime Records Bureau in mid-September this year needs to be carefully parsed before gleaning insights or making State-wise comparisons. 

• The article talks about the nature and patterns of crimes that were registered in 2020, in the backdrop of COVID-19 induced lockdown.

About National Crime Records Bureau

• NCRB, headquartered in New Delhi, was set-up in 1986 under the Ministry of Home Affairs to function as a repository of information on crime and criminals so as to assist the investigators in linking crime to the perpetrators.
• It was set up based on the recommendations of the National Police Commission (1977-1981) and the MHA’s Task Force (1985).
• NCRB brings out the annual comprehensive statistics of crime across the country (‘Crime in India’ report).
• Having been published since 1953, the report serves as a crucial tool in understanding the law and order situation across the country.

Crime in India Report

• The first edition of ‘Crime in India’ pertains to the year 1953 and the latest edition of the report pertains to the year 2020.
• This is the oldest and the most prestigious publication brought out by NCRB.
• The data for the report is collected by State Crime Records Bureaux (SCRBx) from the District Crime Records Bureaux (DCRBx).
• Data on megacities are also collected.
• The annual report, ‘Crime in India-2020’, needs to be carefully analysed before obtaining insights or making State-wise comparisons.

Economic and Cyber-crimes

• The lockdown led to an overall fall in crime related to theft, burglary and dacoity.
• While there was a reduction in the registered number of economic offences (by 12% since 2019), cybercrimes recorded an increase of 11.8%.
• The increase in cybercrimes is cause for concern as this requires sharper law enforcement as seen even in highly developed societies.

Sedition

• While cases related to sedition declined from 93 in 2019 to 73 in 2020, Manipur and Assam led with 15 and 12 cases each.
• Sedition has increasingly been used as a weapon to stifle dissent and this trend needs to be reversed urgently.

Violence against Women

• There are significant variances in case registration across States and Union Territories, especially serious crimes pertaining to rape and violence against women.
• States/UTs such as Tamil Nadu with 1808.8, Kerala (1568.4) and Delhi (1309.6) recorded the highest crime rate (crimes per one lakh people) overall.
• The numbers are a reflection of better reporting and police registration of cases in these States and the capital city.

Mismatch between the NCW and NCRB

• There was an 8.3% decline in registered cases of crimes against women in 2020 (of which the bulk of them, 30.2%, were of the category “Cruelty by husband or his relatives”).
• This number has to be assessed along with the fact that the year saw prolonged lockdowns during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
• This period coincided with a high number of complaints of domestic violence.
• The number of complaints received by the National Commission for Women registered a 10-year high as of June 2020.
• The seeming mismatch between the NCW and NCRB data must be studied and can only be explained by a lack of registration of cases in some States where crime reporting remains sluggish either due to a fear of doing so or a lackadaisical approach by law enforcement.

Road Ahead

• The lockdown had a bearing on the patterns of crimes that were registered in 2020. The sudden lockdown announced in March 2020 immediately prompted grave concerns around escalating rates of domestic violence.
• Restrictions on mobility and an inability for women to leave their homes and seek out safe havens led to anticipation that crimes against women would rise rather than fall. Since there were restrictions on socialising in-person, and teaching shifted online, there was a corresponding rise in time spent by children online, making them vulnerable to online abuse and exploitation.