NCRB data shows 95% rape victims in India known to offenders; Madhya Pradesh tops the list

Source – firstpost.com

One of the biggest misconceptions around rape is the “other-ing” of both the criminal and the victim —  that a “certain” type of man rapes and a “certain” type of woman gets raped (often under “certain” circumstances). The overwhelming complicity of perpetrators in familial positions of power, or those who are known to victims, is grossly understated.

Therefore, sexual assault, most often than not, becomes an under-reported crime not only because of the stigma attached to it and a broken justice system but also because of the additional barriers that a collusion of familial, social power structures, shame and dependency create.

The victims know the rapists

The 2015 National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) data on the proximity of offenders to victims (the most recent data available) shows that in 95 percent of all rape cases, the offender knew the victim. For example, 27 percent of rapes are committed by neighbours, 22 percent involves the promise of marriage and 9 percent are committed by immediate family members and relatives. The data further stated that at least two percent of all rape cases involves live-in partners or husbands (former partners or separated husbands — rape within marriage is not recorded), 1.6 percent are committed by employers or co-workers and 33 percent are committed by other known associates.

According to the data collated by the NCRB, Madhya Pradesh with 4,391 cases, Maharashtra with 4,144, Rajasthan with 3,644, Uttar Pradesh with 3,025, Odisha with 2,251 and Delhi with 2,199 recorded the highest number of reported rape cases. However, it must be noted that a lower rape count could mean a lower ‘reported’ rape count. States that do better on other gender parity metrics (literacy rate, sex ratio, workforce participation etc) are likely to see a higher count of reported rapes because more victims try to access the justice system. For example, Kerala reported 1,256 rapes while Bihar reported 1,041 rapes, despite the fact that the population of Bihar is three times the population of Kerala.