Author:
Ms.Golda Sahoo
Assistant Professor
TNNLU, Trichy
Keywords: victim survey, dark figure, crime
Introduction
The responsibility of providing accurate crime statistics is a complex issue as there is an inconsistency between the numbers of crime registered to police and the real number of victims. The term dark figure of crime is signified as the amount of unreported or undiscovered crime. The choice of the victim to provide information regarding the crime to the police plays a vital role for victims as well as for the entire criminal justice system. The entire restorative justice system will collapse unless the victim informs the law enforcement agency about his victimization. Non-reporting of crime also affects official statistics as the data miscalculate apprehension of crime and helps the offenders to indulge in more criminal activities. Further, having clear statistics about crime also assists law enforcement agencies to prevent crime. It also facilitates the Government to plan regarding budget, and the number of police allocation depends upon the statistics of reported crime.
Our stance
In India, the National Crime Record Bureau report is the only exhaustive statistics accessible with the Government of India on the crime record since 1953. The data enclosed in the report is used by the public at large. The latest NCRB published report available is in the year 2018. The responsibility of data collection for the report is collected by the "State Crime Records Bureaux" and from the district level, the duty is vested upon the "District Crime Records Bureaux" and submitted to the National Crime Record Bureau at the end of each year. Besides this, data from cities with more than ten lakh or more population is collected separately to the bureau. The report is inclusive of comprehensive information on all cases registered in the police station; the status of their disposal and the number of arrested persons, and the disposal falls under the Indian Penal Code and the Special & Local Laws. Also, the report incorporates a complete chapter on the crime committed against the weaker section of the society. The report of 2017 and 2018 was released by the National Crime Records Bureau after a delay of two years. The delay is explained by government officials by blaming a few States for their apathetic attitude in sending data, and the inclusion of more sub-heads for the data. At the same time, the NCRB data undisclosed some major discrepancy related to the registration of grave offences such as rape throughout the States, which results in difficulties to provide State-wise comparisons.
The road ahead for modernization
The delay in submission of the report by NCRB delays the advancement of various research in the area of Criminal Justice and policy throughout the country. The delayed report is again a major concern as various studies relied on outmoded statistics for the past 2 years. The collection of data is one of the greatest challenges for the report to be published on time regarding crime statistics in India. To curb this issue, the data collection process can be drastically modernized by creating a centralized database that can be updated automatically by collecting data from the macro-level. It can also be done by ensuring that the respective data can be uploaded online, automatically after the registration of the FIR and can be added to the central database. This will make the data collection process more convenient for receiving information from every police station at the end of every year, which again, will facilitate NCRB to publish the report every year on time.
Moves to overhaul the issue
The major two factors responsible for the dark figure of crime is non-cooperation of Institutional set up which can only be resolved through affirmative steps by the Government to protect victims as well as the witnesses by providing them with all kind of support including counselling them to report the crime. Additionally, the Societal approach towards the victims of crimes also played a vital role in non –reporting behaviour by preventing them from reporting the crime. The pressures such as the threat of social stigmatization, inequitable power within society, and direct threatening from the accused, prevent them from reporting the crime. These can only be resolved through a collaboration of social consciousness as well as awareness-building programmes. As an advancement towards the discovery of the dark figure of crime, victimization surveys have served as one of the practicable solutions where samples can be taken across the country to disclose the unreported incidents of victimization. As per the data received from fifty-two countries, the reporting rates by victims is only thirty to forty percent, with the lowest reporting rates for heinous crimes such as sexual assault to be as low as 10 percent. The reporting rates vary country-wise and the lowest rate of reporting is found in under-developed countries. India is doomed to fail so far as the victimization survey is concerned. It is highly suggested that victimization surveys should be standardized as a supplemental measure to official statistics of crime. “The International Crime Victim Survey” (ICVS) is also a comprehensive program with fully consistent surveys in various countries.
Proceeding further, to combat the issue related to dark figure, denial for registration of FIR by the police must be strictly punishable u/s 166 A of IPC which speaks, “Whoever, being a public servant—knowingly disobeys any direction of the law which prohibits him from requiring the attendance at any place of any person for the purpose of investigation into an offence or any other, or knowingly disobeys, to the prejudice of any person, any other direction of the law regulating the manner in which he shall conduct such investigation, or fails to record any information given to him under sub-section (1) of section 154 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, in relation to cognizable offence punishable under section 326A, section 326B, section 354, section 354B, section 370, section 370A, section 376, section 376A, section 376AB, section 376B, section 376C, section 376D, section 376DA, section 376DB, section 376E or section 509”,shall be punished with rigorous imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than six months but which may extend to two years, and shall also be liable to fine." Further, the provision of zero FIR which was suggested by the Justice Verma committee needs to get statutory recognition, so that a victim can register FIR irrespective of jurisdictional issues.
Concluding remarks
To conclude, a recommendation would be for the enactment of Victim-friendly legislation that ensures access to restorative justice, compensation, victim assistance programme as envisaged by “the UN Declaration on basic principles of justice for victims of crime and abuse of power, 1985”. The suggested victim legislation should have remedies for violation of the victim’s rights with a grievance redressal mechanism to ensure that the functionary criminal justice system can perform their duty to the victims.
Disclaimer: Kindly note that the views and opinions expressed are of the author, and not Law Colloquy.
Reference:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/1037189?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents
https://ncrb.gov.in/
