Analysis of Changes in Patterns and Composition of Crimes
5.8 Crimes against Property
5.8.2 Dacoity
business/commercial setting (Gyamfi 1998). It may be mentioned that some geographical areas provide greater opportunity for certain criminal activities than others. This spatial opportunities of crime is due to the conglomeration and movement of people, money, goods and services across places. This is the reason why the urban areas or business places become the targets for crimes like robbery. The composition of booty received during robbery has undergone some changes in recent times. Robberies of electronic and photographic equipment have started becoming common though portable electronics were stolen only half as compared to cash (Sethi et al 2009).
However, one can see that the highway robbery incidents also have come down, though marginally. This reduction may be attributed to the increased vigilance in the high way though one could have expected such crimes to increase with the extension of highway networks etc.
Source : Author‘s calculation on NCRB data
3. Dacoity is more serious and heinous offence than robbery.
4. In dacoity, every member of the gang of dacoity is punished, whether he takes active part or not. If one of members of dacoity commits wrong defined under this section, all the members are held liable for punishment.
Dacoity has been provided an important place in the writings of historians.
This kind of crime has been adequately discussed in the travelogue. It is a term which comes down from times when organized robbery was a part of the ordinary social system (Henderson 1913).This is because through the ages, dacoits have raided their targets, looted money and other valuable even by killing. In most cases they resort to this crime as a source of livelihood or profession. (Sahito et al 2009).
There has been steady increase in dacoity cases till mid 80‘s , the extent of increase was much more since 1986 after which it came down significantly in the year 1990 . This may be attributed to the movement of security forces in the interior areas as a measure against terrorists as there was special operation executed in the vulnerable areas.
Figure 5.16
Crime rate of Dacoity 100,000 population
Source : Author‘s calculation on NCRB data 0.00
0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 4.00
Crime rate per 100000 Population
Year
Share of dacoity cases in the crime against property has been showing a declining trend in the recent past. From little above than 6 precent in 1995 it has come down to 1.85 per cent in 2012 remaining constant in the time period under discussion. The absolute numbers of dacoity incidents have been showing some fluctuating trend on year to year basis in the entire period. But the number has come down significantly to 266 in 2012.
Figure 5.17
Share of dacoity in crime against Property
Source : Author‘s calculation on NCRB data
The descriptive statistics have been calculated for the entire period 1974-2012 and further it has been sub divided into smaller periods to have a better understanding of these statistics. Average for the entire period 1974 to 2012 is 489. This higher figure is mainly because of the high dacoity rates in the period namely 1991 to 2000 which is 764
0 2 4 6 8 10
Percentage
Y ear
Dacoity
against the comparative mean values of 427 (1974-1990) and 348 (2001-2012). It may be mentioned that in the decade 2000-2010 there is a marked decline of dacoity.
Table 5.19
Descriptive statistics of Dacoity
Period 1974-1990 1991-2000 2001-2012 1974-2012
Mean 427 764 348 489
Max 928
Min 248
St Deviation 144 93 94 203
Source : Author‘s calculation on NCRB data
Charge sheet and conviction rates in Dacoity :
As in other crimes the experience of Assam in terms of charge sheeting dacoity cases has not been up to satisfactory level. The all India C.S percentage has been significantly higher than that of Assam. For example, the rates of filing charge sheets in Assam for the years 2010 and 2012 had been 57.6 and 58.8 percentage while that of all India rates for the respective years had been 76.4 and 77.8 percentage. It is interesting to note that from the middle of the last decade, the percentage in regards to C.S rates has been better and this is the period when the terrorist violence has been waning due to surrender of a number of members from different militant groups.
The picture in conviction rate is worse than that of C.S rates when one compares this with the all India picture. For example, in 2012 conviction rate of dacoity cases was 20 per cent in Assam, while all India rate was 21.1per cent. The percentage of conviction rate in Assam in relation to other states in this regard is also poor, eg. in 2012, the conviction rates for dacoity cases were in Tamil Nadu (24.2), UP (54), Haryana (32). However, Assam has done better than some states like Odisha (12.5), Kerala (15), Gujarat (8.9).
All these indicate that there is a need to improve the quality of investigation of such cases so that these result in conviction. It is seen that number of persons arrested has come down even the number of cases registered has been more. For example, in 2010 & 2012 the number of persons arrested in dacoity cases were 816 and 485 as against the total numbers of dacoity cases registered in the state were 248 and 266 respectively. It is worthwhile to note that as in incidences of robbery, majority of the persons arrested in this
crime belong to the age group of most productive group of people , eg. in 2012 out of the total 485 arrested persons, 84.53 per cent belonged to the age group of 18-45 years.
However ,it may be noted that dacoity in the state has been a crime dominated by male and there is no arrested female dacoit.
Places of occurrence:
By places of occurrence, a similar picture like that of burglary and robbery emerges. Here also one can see a shift away from residential premises to commercial establishments and others which include banks, railways, boats and ship etc. This shift may be the result of the factors like increased commercialization due to growth of liberal economy leading to growth of establishment of market and shopping places, preference for going in for home security measures, and increased police presence. However, one can see that the highway robbery incidents also have come down, though marginally. This reduction may be attributed to the increased vigilance in the highway though one could have expected such crimes to increase with the extension of highway networks etc.
Table 5.20
Percentage share of Dacoity by place of occurrence
Year Residential
Premises Highway Commercial
Establishments Others
2012 46.2 2.6 10.5 40.6
1990 78.9 6.4 1.8 13
Source : Author‘s calculation on NCRB data