Victimisation varies across gender, caste: Survey

Victims of crime in India have, typically, been shaped for public imagination by media reportage and police statements that are invariably short on context.

The questions around victimisation based on gender, caste, and class have remained largely unaddressed in criminological studies.

The Karnataka Crime Victimisation Survey (KCVS) 2018-2019, commissioned by Azim Premji University, could be a step forward in bridging the gaps. Its findings, while showing that victimisation varied across gender and caste, revealed that reporting, and recording, of crimes also depended on socio-economic markers and the victim's confidence in the system.

KCVS compiled data from a sample of 2,002 households across Karnataka's central, northern, eastern, north-eastern, southern and western police ranges and covered personal crime (murder, assault etc) and household property crimes (robbery, trespass etc).

The survey, in a departure from traditions of crime compilations, also included offences by government officials (bribery and assault). It did not cover sexual harassment, dowry crimes and crimes against children.

KCVS was led by Sudhir Krishnaswamy, vice-chancellor, National Law School of India University (NLSIU) and Varsha Aithala, doctoral candidate, NLSIU.

The survey concluded that crime victimisation reduced with a rise in social and economic stature. Dalits were 48 per cent more likely to be vulnerable to crimes than upper-caste members. The results showed that 9 per cent more men reported being victims of crime than women.

Krishnaswamy told DH that public understanding of crimes could be skewed if drawn entirely on police and reported narratives. The idea is to develop a survey-based understanding of what people think is the relative safety and order of the communities they live in.

"Do they feel safe irrespective of their caste and class backgrounds? How does gender make a difference to the sense of order and security? Would they report (the crime)? Who has confidence in the police force? This kind of work has not been done in India," he said.

The baseline measure, the victimisation rate, was calculated as the number of victims of at least one category of crime, per 100 of the population, and covered crimes that were not reported, or even if reported, were not recorded by the police. The KCVS victimisation rate, around 30 per cent, is significantly higher than earlier surveys of this nature.

Under-reporting

In the survey, only one in four instances of victimisation was found reported. Victims reported crimes mainly (36 per cent) to recover stolen items or locate missing persons (for offences against the body).

Only 13 per cent of the respondents who approached the police could register complaints. The survey noted "a tendency" among the police to favour upper and middle class complainants in registering FIRs, and encourage complainants from lower classes to settle the matter without filing official complaints. The police were also found to be more proactive in registering complaints on property-related offences.

About 59 per cent of the cases saw victims satisfied with the police response. The researchers traced this to the possibility of "considerate and humane treatment" by the police weighing higher in public perception, than actual handling of the crime/complaint.

Krishnaswamy said a standalone monograph detailing the survey was in the works. The findings of the survey, administered by Sigma Research and Consulting Pvt Ltd, have been highlighted in a chapter in Crime Victimisation in India, published by Springer and released in October this year. KCVS was designed as a pilot for India’s first national crime victimisation survey – the All India Citizens Survey of Police Services, being conducted by the Bureau of Police Research and Development, along with the National Council of Applied Economic Research.