Relevance: Sociology Paper II
The city is the point of maximum concentration of power and culture of a community (Mumford). It is also believed that urban centres are the largest concentration of different kinds of environment and social pollution. Increasing crime is one the most crucial social pollution that dominates the urban scenario worldwide. There is no uniform definition of crime. Crime can be described as violation of legal codes, but this does not undermine the fact that legal codes themselves are culturally, geographically specific. What is considered to be criminal varies across cultures, geographical locations and the period of history.
The location of crimes is determined through a premeditated decision process of the offenders shaped by perceptions of environment that separate good criminal opportunities from bad risks;
The geographical study of crime seeks to explain the spatial clustering of criminal behaviour; consider how the construction and monitoring of space might reduce the incidence of criminality. Like many other social phenomena, criminal behaviour is unevenly distributed (Gregory, Johnston, Pratt, Watts, & Whatmore,).
The spatial pattern that has been discovered is termed as the urban crime gradient, which is the tendency for the number of criminals living in a neighbourhood defined with distance from the centre of the city (Rengert). Much work in geography attempts to account for this variation, typically by elaborating the demographic characteristics and common social patterns in places where crime is concentrated (Smith).
In later 20th century commentators have focused on the role of crime, and fear of crime appears to have played increasingly in the role of surveillance, policing and security within the highly sanitised and standard urban space of shopping malls, retail parks and leisure spaces of the contemporary urban environment. Such development appears to demonstrate the close interplay between individual and collective concern about personal safety and security (Caves)
Case of india
Indian cities present a wide range of diversity in their socio-economic structure. This diverse nature has generated the diversity in the incidents of crime and crime pattern across the country. National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) published the crime data reported throughout the country. Metropolitan cities have significant contribution in the total crime rate of their respective states. The detail of crime in metropolitan cities has been published by NCRB for the better understanding of the crime pattern across the cities in the country.
Jabalpur city is one of the prominent urban centres of central India characterised by the higher concentration of criminal activities. It is believed that the city and its surrounding areas historically was a hub of criminal activities.
In modern times also the city has recorded relatively higher concentration of criminal activities and is among the high crime prone cities of the country. As per the 2011 Census, the city with 1.27 million inhabitants shares only 0.79 percent burden of the Indian metropolitan population, while 1.37 percent of criminal incident (violation of different sections of the IPC) of all metropolitan cities was recorded here during 2015. Due to a disproportionate share of crime the city ranked 10th (on the basis of crime rate) in criminality.
Crime Rates and Rank in Criminality
At the end of the first decade of the 21st century, in 2010 the city has reported 6205 incidences of violation of IPC (NCRB, 2011). The city is ranked 7th among the 35 metropolitan cities in violation of IPC with a rate of 555.50 per lakh population. Table 1 indicates that the rank of the city remained consistently high during the second decade of the 21st century.
Incidents of crime have increased from 6205 in 2010 to 9253 in 2015, which means an increase of about 50 percent (base year 2010) in the total incidents of crime within the period of five years.
There are clear indication that the trend of increase in crime is continuing in the second decade of the 21stcentury. The annexation of peripheral areas in the city boundary is the most probable reason behind the sharp increase in the number of crimes. Apart from the increase in incidents of crime, a rapid growth in the rate of crime is also a serious issue for the society as well as the concerned city authorities.
According to NCRB, the city is ranked on 10th position among the 53 metropolitan cities listed in 2011 census. One fact should be mentioned here is that Kollam, Jodhpur and Gwalior are the new entries in the list of metropolitan cities. They achieved the metropolitan status first time in the 2011 census. Without consideration of these three cities the relative position of the city would have been same as it was in 2010.
One more important fact that should be taken into consideration is that all the four metropolitan cities of Madhya Pradesh are ranked very high in the crime rate. Jabalpur ranks lowest among them.
The higher rate of crime in the metropolitan cities of the state is the main reason behind the higher position of the state in the overall crime incidence (Tiwari). With 268,614 incidents of violation of IPC in 2015 MP ranked second in the total incidents of crime (followed by Maharashtra) as well as in crime rate (followed by Kerala).
Reasons behind High Crime Rates
The data regarding crime incidents are readily available and it is evident from the data that the city has a disproportionate share in terms of criminal activities. The probable reasons behind the higher crime rates are as follows:
- Harsh distributaries distributional inequalities. As per the 2011 census, more than a quarter of the metro cities population is living in slum areas.
- Crimes against women are very high in the mega cities. Data suggests that most of the big cities are more prone to crime against women, and it is surprising that in spite of its relatively smaller size, the city is facing higher incidents of crime against women. Even the city like Kollam which has the highest rate of crime has relatively low rates of crimes against women.
- Detailed analysis of crime data of various years across the cities may provide one clue that apart from larger metropolitan cities (mega cities) only few small cities have higher rates of crime against women. Most of these cities are neo educational/commercial hub of central and north India. These cities, like Kota, Patna, Bhopal, Jabalpur and Raipur have accommodated a large number of students including female students. These students sometimes become easy victims of crime due to inexperience of the city environment or working in an urban milieu.
- Geographical factors, especially arrangement of streets and roads in the big city, may enhance the probability of crime in various locations. Hills and water bodies are the feature characteristics of the urban milieu of the city. These two are the most crucial hindrance in the formation of desired network of road at all places and on the other hand, they increase the density of roads and street in other places. The higher density of streets and roads makes the surveillance tough and provides secret non-specified routes for the criminals.
- The location of too many educational institutions in the peripheral and relatively sparsely populated areas may enhance the crime against women, especially those who are studying there and arriving from distant rural areas. Sometime the commuters are prime targets of anti-social youth active in these areas.