NCRB Report And Its Conceptual Flaws

Crime is an ever-existent feature of society.

- Waris Masih

Criminal jurisprudence, in order to progress, requires empirical data analysis to understand crime and its forms. Statistical information aids the different law enforcement agencies to comprehend how crime prevails in the society which culminates into chalking out a roadmap of how to reduce criminal occurrences. National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) is an agency, under the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, which is tasked to make statistical records of the crimes that occur throughout the country. The NCRB employs different techniques and methodologies to conclude the mammoth task of covering every State and Union Territory in this nationwide crime record. After testing our patience for nearly three years, the NCRB released the data for the year 2017 in October this year. The latest annual crime data released by the NCRB revealed that there was an increase of 3.6% in criminal cases in 2017 as compared to 2016, when 50 lakh cases of cognisable offences were registered across the country. The crimes registered in 2017 revealed that the number of murder cases has descended by 5.9% with 28,653 cases of killings registered in the year, from 30,450 murder cases in 2016. As per the report, “disputes” (7,898 cases) were the motive in the maximum number of murder cases, followed by “personal vendetta or enmity” (4,660) and “gain” (2,103). There was a 9% increase in kidnapping and abduction cases in 2017, with 95,893 cases registered against 88,008 in 2016, as per the NCRB report. As per the data, a total of 1,00,555 (23,814 male and 76,741 female) victims were reported kidnapped or abducted, out of which 56,622 (14,296 male and 42,326 female) victims were children and 43,933 (9,518 male and 34,415 female) victims were adults during 2017. The NCRB data showed 9,89,071 cases of offences affecting the human body, including 1,42,794 cases of death by negligence and 86,001 of assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty, were registered.