Geography of Rape Crime in India : A Spatial Analysis of Official Data

From womb to tomb, a woman is under the constant fear of violence. Rape is the most heinous and frequent forms of violence against women. In India, with a relatively more severe taboo on sex and sex offences committed on women, one could well visualise the most drastic consequences of such crime on the victims. The Geography of rape crime in India is very peculiar. Though rape crime is widespread in all societies whether developed or underdeveloped, India has a very low rate of rape as compared to developed countries, but it is also a fact that there is a high variation in volume of rape from one state to another in India. The discussion begins with an overview on status of women in Indian society, rape and related issues. The objective of this paper is to examine spatial pattern of rape crime. The National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) publication ‘Crime in India’ provides data related to women specific crime under caption ‘Crime against Women’. These are the data analysed in this paper. For determining the spatial pattern and different level of vulnerability Standard Deviation (SD) technique has been used. Average Rate of rape crime is considered as standard variable and SD is calculated by using formula. The level of vulnerability under deviation is grouped and finally comparative analysis is done to show spatial variation. The paper also analyzes the relation between rate of rape and socio-economic indicators of society