What are the new components in the Crime in India Report 2017?

After a prolonged delay, the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) has released the Crime in India Report 2017.

What’s new in 2017 report?

• The 2017 report has introduced more than three dozen new categories and sub-categories of crimes under various heads.
• The 2017 report has omitted data on mob lynchings, khap killings, murder by influential people and killings for religious reasons.
• Data on farmer suicides after 2015 are yet to be published and it is with the ministry of home affairs.
• For the first time, the NCRB has introduced categories of cyber crimes against women and children.
• The NCRB for the first time published data on offences registered solely under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act with a further categorisation of insult, land grab and social ostracism.
• The report has also recorded cases of disproportionate assets against public servants besides introducing new crime heads such as abetment, criminal intimidation, simple hurt, credit/debit card and online frauds, Internet crimes through online gaming and kidnapping for begging among others.
• For the first time, the report has not merely dwelt on the pendency of cases with the police and courts but also the period of such pendency, which has thrown up some rather counter-intuitive data.
• The NCRB has removed the category of gangrape that was introduced to the NCRB database following the December 2012 gangrape case.

Despite delays and drawbacks such as ommissions the NCRB report 2017 offers a useful snapshot of crime.