Publication

Abstract : Despite the constitutional and legal provisions, crime against women in India has been continuously on the rise. While the incidence of crime against women is sharply on the rise, different dimensions of crime have varied across the states. Given the NCRB data on crime against women in India at the state level, the current study examines the dimensions and changing trends on crime against women and its association with important socio economic variables. Cluster analysis using agglomerative hierarchical method suggests for three clusters. We then use the widely used K-Means clustering method to arrive at the final clusters. The analysis reveals strong association of the rate of crime with that of socio economic variables like poverty rate, per capita state domestic product, literacy rate and the human development ranking of the state. The study reveals the importance of development indicators as much as the legal provisions in bringing down the rate of crime against women in India.