Rape and Rape/Gangrape with Murder in India: Incidence and Disposal of Cases- A Preliminary Study
Image courtesy: Gulistan News
Oct 10, 2024
By: Venkatesh Nayak
In July 2014 we published a preliminary analysis of publicly available government data about the incidence of the heinous crime of rape since the dawn of the 21st century and covering a 13-year period (2001 – 2013). This study was conducted in the aftermath of the 2012 gruesome gang-rape of Nirbhaya in New Delhi which eventually resulted in her death and the major amendments made to the existing criminal laws- both substantive and procedural based on the recommendations of the Justice J S Verma Committee. The report of this preliminary study can be accessed here.
Today we are at another historical juncture. Country-wide protests have been launched by the medical fraternity to protest the rape and murder of a young doctor in a government-run hospital in Kolkata earlier in August 2024. The Supreme Court of India has directed the setting up of a task force to protect doctors and other healthcare workers from violence they face in the line of duty. Meanwhile reports of rape, sexual assault, molestation of women and girls occurring in different parts of the country are published by the media every day. The criminal justice system has begun implementing what the Union Government calls- “decolonized criminal” laws since July this year. While it is too early to gauge their impact, this is a good moment to ask whether the seminal amendments to the erstwhile criminal laws introduced through the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013 have had any impact on the incidence of sexual crimes against women, particularly that of rape and rape-cum-murder.
A decade after the publication of our first study, once again we have analysed government data about the incidence of rape and the manner of disposal of such cases by the police and courts. These statistics are published by the Union Home Ministry’s National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) in its annual Crime in India (CII) reports. Our preliminary study is divided into three parts. Part-1 of the study report contains our findings about the incidence of cases of rape and murder with rape/gang rape across the country and in each State and Union Territory (UT). Part-2 of the study report,contains our findings about the manner of disposal of cases of rape and rape/gangrape with murder across the country. Part-3 of the study report contains our findings about the district-wise incidence of cases of rape during the period 2015-2022. Click on the links below to access these reports.
Part-1: Rape and Rape/Gangrape with Murder in India: Incidence of Cases 2014-2022
Part 3: Rape Cases in India: District-wise Trends 2015-2022
Datasets
CHRI NCRB RapeStats DataTable 1
CHRI NCRB RapeStats DataTable 2