Crime against Women and Children in Delhi

This paper analyses crime against women and children in Delhi based on two data sources, the National Crime Records Bureau and an empirical data set of the Perceptions Survey of the Delhi Human Development Report, 2013. Using the NCRB data, the paper analyses trends in the rate and composition of crime against women and children from 2004-2006 to 2010-2012, including charge sheets and convictions. Results from the Perceptions Survey highlight the spatial nature of crime in the state, the differential experience of crime by social groups, as well as men and women. A key finding is the high vulnerability of children to crime in the city. What emerges from the comparison of secondary and primary data is the simultaneous existence of incidence of crime on the one hand and perception of crime and violence on the other. A combination of various data sources is important to capture both incidence and perception in order to gain a more holistic and in-depth understanding of crime and violence, a vastly under-researched topic in the social sciences.