The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) released a report Crimes in India 2016 – Statistics on November 30, according to which, Uttar Pradesh records the highest number of crimes in the year 2016. The state alone recorded for 9.5% of all Indian Penal Code (IPC) crimes, followed by Madhya Pradesh at 8.9%, Maharashtra at 8.8% and Kerala at 8.7%.
Since last year, the total number of crimes in the country has increased by 2.6%, with Delhi reporting the highest crime rate of 974.9 under IPC crimes followed by Kerala (727.6) and Madhya Pradesh (337.9) against the national average of 233.6.
[Note: Crime rate is the number of reported crimes in a state/country against its population. If the number of reported crimes remains constant, the higher the population of a state/country, the lesser is the crime rate.]
Violent crimes
Out of the total number of murder cases reported in 2016 (30,405), Uttar Pradesh holds the highest share – 4,889 cases – accounting for 16.1% of all the murder cases in the country. This is followed by Bihar (8.4%).
Out of all the categories of “violent crimes” – murder, kidnapping and abduction, rioting, robbery and dacoity – there has been an increase only in cases kidnapping and abduction. This alone increased the total number of violent crimes in 2016 as compared to last year, by 0.8%.
Crime against women
There was a 3% decline in the total number of “crime against women” in 2015 when compared to 2014. This increased by 2.9% in 2016.
Majority of cases under crimes against women were reported under ‘Cruelty by Husband or His Relatives’ (32.6%) followed by ‘Assault on Women with Intent to Outrage her Modesty’ (25.0%), ‘Kidnaping & Abduction of Women’ (19.0%) and ‘Rape’ (11.5%).
Uttar Pradesh reported 14.5% (49,262) of total cases of crimes against women followed by West Bengal (9.6%) (32,513 cases) during 2016.
Delhi UT reported the highest crime rate (160.4) compared to the national average rate of 55.2.
Rape cases have a reported increase of 12.4% from 2015. Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh reported the highest incidence of rape with 4,882 cases (12.5%) and 4,816 (12.4%) followed by Maharashtra 4,189 (10.7%) during 2016.
Crime against children
A very disturbing trend can be observed in “crime against children”, which has been on a rise since the last three years. In 2016, crimes against children have seen increase of 13.6%.
Kidnapping and abduction of children accounted for 52.3% of the cases followed by cases reported under POCSO (Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences Act) – 34.4%.
Uttar Pradesh tops both categories.
Juveniles in conflict with law
Cases reported under “juveniles in conflict with law” have shown a mixed trend for the past three years with the decline of 13.1% in 2015 (33,433) over 2014 (38,455) followed by an increase of 7.2% in 2016 (35,849) over 2015.
Madhya Pradesh comes out top with 20.6% of the total number of cases in 2016 followed by Maharashtra – 18.4%.
Atrocities/crime against SC/ST
Atrocities/crime against scheduled castes (SCs) have increased by 5.5% in 2016 (40,801) over 2015 (38,670) and Uttar Pradesh again comes out top with 10,426 reported cases that account for more than a quarter of the total number of cases in the country.
Atrocities/crime against scheduled tribes (STs) have also increased. The total number of cases in 2015 was 6,276 and in 2016, the number is 6,568 – an increase by 4.7%. Madhya Pradesh reported the highest number of cases of atrocities against STs accounting for 27.8% followed by Rajasthan with 18.2% (1,195 cases) and Odisha with 10.4% (681 cases).
Cyber crimes
This category has also shown an increasing trend, with the number of cases reported in 2016 standing at 12,317 over 11,592 cases in 2015.
The state of Uttar Pradesh reported the highest number of cases (2,639) of cyber crimes accounting for 21.4% followed by Maharashtra with 19.3% (2,380 cases) and Karnataka with 8.9% (1101 cases).
Human trafficking
This year, a total of 8,132 cases of human trafficking were reported in the country with West Bengal reporting the highest number of cases (3,579) sharing nearly 44% of the total cases followed by Rajasthan (1,422) sharing 17.9% of such cases in the country.
However, a total of 15,379 persons were trafficked during the year including 58.7% children. Out of the 23,117 persons who were rescued during the year, children made 61.3% of the victims (including victims of 2015).
Missing persons (including children)
Maharashtra reported the highest number of missing persons (94,919 – 17.2%) out of the total of 5,49,008 persons (2,34,334 males and 3,14,674 females).
A total of 1,11,569 children (41,175 males and 70,394 females) were reported missing in which maximum children missing were reported from West Bengal (15.1%) during 2016.
Seizures Uttar Pradesh has reported the maximum number of arms seizure (27,189) followed by Madhya Pradesh (8,019) and Rajasthan (5,75…
