Rise in cybercrime, most crimes against women in UP: How to read NCRB’s 2023 Crime in India report

“The overall crime rate per lakh population climbed from 422.2 in 2022 to 448.3 in 2023,” the report said. “Motor Vehicle Act violations doubled, rising from 94,450 to 1.92 lakh cases, contributing heavily to the overall increase. Crimes affecting the human body — ranging from hurt to homicide — increased by 2.3%, with 11.85 lakh cases registered,” the report said.

But how does the NCRB gather these data, what do they tell us beyond the headline numbers, and why are they important?

Who publishes the NCRB report?

The NCRB was established in 1986 to compile crime data, functioning under the Union Home Ministry. Apart from publishing annual reports, it engages in the “Collection, coordination and exchange of information on inter-state and international criminals to the respective states”.

NCRB also acts as a “national warehouse” for the fingerprint records of Indian and foreign criminals, and assists in locating interstate criminals through fingerprint search.

NCRB Director Alok Ranjan said, “Since its inception in 1953, the report has served as a principal reference document for diverse stakeholders at both national and international platforms.”

He added that the nature of crimes is changing rapidly today, thanks to advanced technology, and this poses significant challenges to the criminal justice system. In this context, access to comprehensive crime data can enable investigative agencies to analyse emerging trends and underlying causes, and frame effective strategies.

How does the NCRB collect information for its report?

The annual State/UT data for “Crime in India” is furnished by the 36 States and Union Territories in the NCRB-prescribed proformae through its software application. Police input this information at the police station/district level, and it is then validated further at the district and state levels, and finally by the NCRB.

“Crime rates (crime per lakh population) of States/UTs have been arrived at using the mid-year projected population of respective States/UTs of 2022 based on 2011 census (report of the technical group on population projections, July, 2020, National Commission on population, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare),” the report said.

What were some key data points in the report?

Crime against children: A total of 1,77,335 cases of crime against children were registered across the country in 2023, showing an increase of 9.2% as compared to the previous year.

In percentage terms, major crime heads in 2023 were kidnapping and abduction of children (79,884 cases or 45%) and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act (67,694 cases or 38.2%).

Crimes against Scheduled Tribes (STs): Crimes against STs increased 28.8% in 2023, with 12,960 cases registered.

Manipur, which has been grappling with ethnic violence between the Meitei and Kuki-Zo communities since May 2023, emerged as the worst-affected state. “Madhya Pradesh reported the second-highest number of crimes against STs with 2,858 cases, next was Rajasthan with 2,453 cases in 2023,” the report said.

Crime against Scheduled Castes (SCs): There were 57,789 cases registered in 2023 for crimes against SCs, with Uttar Pradesh accounting for the highest share at 15,130 cases. Rajasthan recorded the second-highest number at 8,449, followed by Madhya Pradesh (8,232) and Bihar (7,064).

Cybercrime: Cybercrime in India saw a sharp surge in 2023, with fraud, extortion and sexual exploitation accounting for the majority of cases. The crime rate, which is the number of crimes per lakh population, increased from 4.8 in 2022 to 6.2 in 2023.

“Defrauding gullible victims was a primary motive of the cyber criminals, with 68.9% of them driven by the desire to scam their victims in 59,526 such cases”, the report said.

The rise in cases under the cybercrime category has been steady — from 27,248 in 2018, 44,735 in 2019, 50,035 cases in 2020, 52,974 in 2021 and 65,893 in 2022. Karnataka, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh saw the most cases.

Crime against women: A total of 4,48,211 cases of crime against women were registered, marking an increase of 0.7%. The national crime rate stood at 66.2 incidents per lakh female population.

Among states, Uttar Pradesh reported the highest number of cases at 66,381, followed by Maharashtra, Rajasthan, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh. “Majority of cases under crime against women were registered under cruelty by husband or relatives with 1,33,676 cases (29.8%), kidnapping and abduction of women with 88,605 cases (19.8%), followed by assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty with 83,891 cases (18.71%) and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act with 66,232 cases (14.8%),” said the NCRB report.

Several states also showed a decline. “Madhya Pradesh, which led in absolute numbers with 3,619 cases in 2023 (down from 3,795 in 2022), and Maharashtra with 3,970 cases (down from 4,406) saw reductions. However, Bihar reported a sharp jump from 1,052 to 1,818 cases, and the number of cases in Tamil Nadu increased from 2,607 to 2,999. Among the UTs, Delhi accounted for the bulk at 2,278 cases, down from 2,340 in 2022,” it said.

How should the NCRB report be read?

By its own admission, the NCRB has highlighted the limitations of its data. For one, “Since the publication caters to the ‘Principal Offence Rule’ for classification of crime, the actual count of each crime head may be under reported.”

The Principal Offence Rule states that in a case where multiple offences are registered against an accused, only the “most heinous crime”, carrying the most stringent punishment, will be considered when counting. For example, ‘Murder with Rape’ is accounted as ‘Murder’, leading to undercounting of the crime of rape.

Also, since the report only compiles data submitted at the local level, inefficiencies or gaps in data have an impact. Vacancies or a shortage of police officers at the local level may hinder the collection of data.

Further, the data records the incidence of registered crime rather than actual crime. So, when reported crimes against women in Delhi rose significantly in the aftermath of the 2012 gangrape case, it may have been a reflection of increased awareness about registering crimes, both among those affected and the police, rather than an actual increase in the incidence of crime against women.

“‘Rise in crime’ and ‘increase in registration of crime by police’ are clearly two different things, a fact which requires better understanding”, said the NCRB, adding that “higher” numbers for crimes may not always be a bad sign: “Increase in crime numbers in a state police data may in fact be on account of certain citizen-centric police initiatives, like launching of e-FIR facility or women helpdesks, etc.”

Also, since actual numbers will be mostly higher for the more populous states, a “crime rate” is calculated per unit of population. But again, the data used for determining the total population is old, from the 2011 Census.