An Analysis of Reported Crime against Women and Girls in Eastern India

Crimes against women and girls have been increasing in recent years as reported by the National Crime Records Bureau. It becomes a serious social evil worldwide. The study has been tried to find out the trend of crimes against women for the period of the last ten years (2010-2019) in the states of eastern India i.e. Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and West Bengal. The study has been based on secondary data from the National Crime Records Bureau, Govt of India. The data have been extracted and analyzed to get the status of crimes in particular categories. The crime records of Bihar show an increasing rate of women assault cases. Jharkhand data shows that indecent representation of women has increased in recent years. In West Bengal Cruelty by husband is the most reported crime in West Bengal and it is also observed that rape cases were decreased in West Bengal continuously in the last ten years. It has been found that Orissa and Bihar are significantly high in crimes like women assault on the internet, an insult to the modesty of women, kidnapping and rape comparing other states of study. Cruelty by husbands and cases under the immoral traffic act had significantly higher in West Bengal compared to other states under study. The Dowry death and kidnapping and abduction are significantly high in Bihar. The different levels of crimes against women in different states not only indicates the status of women in the society and the law and order situations of that state but also it is a reflection of the socio-psychological aspects. Proper implementation of laws along with awareness of related issues, along with continuous monitoring can play a crucial role to minimize the overall crime scenario.

Community policing and the organizational structure of campus law enforcement agencies

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which community policing within campus law enforcement agencies is influenced by the organizational structure, agency characteristics and campus characteristics.Design/methodology/approachThis study utilizes ordinary least squares regression modeling to examine community policing implementation. Data were drawn from a sample of 242 US colleges and universities included in the 2011–2012 Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) Survey of Campus Law Enforcement Agencies (SCLEA).FindingsFindings show that within-campus law enforcement agencies, greater levels of community policing are associated with more formalization, larger numbers of employees, a higher task scope and higher rates of on-campus property crime.Research limitations/implicationsUse of secondary data and reported crime rate limits the study. Future research should implement specialized surveys and qualitative methods to identify the specific needs and implementations of community policing.Originality/valueThis paper adds to the limited body of literature on the community policing in campus law enforcement through more recent data and the inclusion of campus community variables.

School-Level Economic Disparities in Police-Reported Crimes and Active Commuting to School

Perceived safety remains one of the main barriers for children to participate in active commuting to school (ACS). This ecological study examined the associations between the number of police-reported crimes in school neighborhoods and ACS. The percentage of active travel trips was assessed from a teacher tally survey collected from students across 63 elementary schools that were primarily classified as high-poverty (n = 27). Geographic Information System (GIS) was used to create a detailed measure of police-reported crimes during 2018 and neighborhood covariates that occurred within a one-mile Euclidean buffer of the schools. Statistical analyses included linear fixed effects regressions and negative binomial regressions. In fully-adjusted models, reported crime did not exhibit significant associations with ACS. Medium-poverty schools were indirectly associated with ACS when compared to high- and low-poverty schools in all models (p < 0.05). Connectivity and vehicle ownership were also directly associated with ACS (p < 0.05). Low- and medium-poverty schools were indirectly associated with all types of reported crime when compared to high-poverty schools (p < 0.05). Although reported crime was not associated with school-level ACS, differences in ACS and reported crime do exist across school poverty levels, suggesting a need to develop and promote safe and equitable ACS interventions.

Education and Crime across America: Inequity’s Cost

Much of current research on crime and education has focused on the effect of minimum dropout age on rates of crime. Combining the FBI’s uniform crime reporting database and district finance data, we study the longitudinal relationship between crime in every town/city (whose police department has reported crime statistics) and its school district spending in years 2003 to 2018. We combine over 213 datasets to control for population, density, wealth, education, employment, cost-of-living, race, law enforcement, and voting history. Additionally, we also look at teacher salary, teacher engagement, and student chronic absenteeism. Using linear mixed-effect modeling, we find an overall average of 2.35% percent decrease in property crime for every $1000 more a school district spends per pupil on education. Moreover, a $1000 increase in education spending decreased property crime nearly four times as much as a 10 percent increase in per capita income. We also looked at the range in district spending in towns/cities and counties whose students attend multiple districts. We find that for every $1000 difference in district spending within a city, property crime increases by an average of 3%; interestingly, violent crime decreases by 3%. When we lag variables of education quality, allowing these effects to playout, we also find that for every 10 percentage-point increase in chronic absenteeism among students, violent crime increases by 4%. Importantly, we find no such effect for property crime, suggesting a distinct mechanism of education on violent crime. Additionally, both law enforcement and unemployment explain little variance in crime. Our results demonstrate a robust relationship between education funding and reduced crime across America with regard to amount spent per student as well as equity in spending.

Estimating exposure to neighborhood crime by race and ethnicity for public health research

Background Police-reported crime data (hereafter “crime”) is routinely used as a psychosocial stressor in public health research, yet few studies have jointly examined (a) differences in crime exposure based on participant race and ethnicity, (b) differences in measures of crime exposure, and (c) considerations for how exposure to police is captured in police-recorded crime data. We estimate neighborhood exposure to crime and discuss the implications of structural differences in exposure to crime and police based on race and ethnicity. Methods Using GPS coordinates from 1188 participants in the Newborn Epigenetics Study, we estimated gestational exposure to crime provided by the Durham, North Carolina, Police Department within (a) 800 m and (b) the Census block group of residence. We controlled for non-overlapping spatial boundaries in crime, Census, residential, and police data to report crime spatial (crime per km2) and population (crime per 1000 people per km2) density. Results We demonstrate dramatic disparities in exposure to crime based on participant race and ethnicity and highlight variability in these disparities based on the type of crime and crime measurement method chosen. Conclusions Public health researchers should give thoughtful consideration when using police-reported crime data to measure and model exposure to crime in the United States, as police-reported data encompasses joint exposure to police and crime in the neighborhood setting.

The impact of gunshots on place-level business activity

Objectives Gun violence can negatively affect business activity at the place-level through a variety of mechanisms. However, estimating this effect is difficult since reported crime data are biased by factors that are also associated with business health. Despite some of its limitations, data from gunshot detection technology has been shown as a new valuable source of data on gun violence (Irvin-Erickson et al. in Appl Geogr 86: 262–273, 2017a). In this study, we use gunshot detection data to explore the spatial relationship between gunshots and business activity at the neighborhood level in Washington, DC between 2010 and 2012. Methods In this exploratory study, we create spatial buffers of 500 and 1000 feet around each block and sum up the total number of gunshots and business births, deaths, sales, and number of employees within these buffers each year and estimate a spatial fixed effects panel model. Results Gunshots within 1000 feet of a block increase the number of business deaths by 4.3% within that buffer on average, and gunshots within 500 feet of a block decrease the total number of service and retail businesses, the number of employees employed by businesses within that buffer, and total sales for those businesses (although not at a statistically significant rate). Gunshots on blocks with the lowest initial levels of gunshots increase business turnover and reduce the total number of businesses present by 0.5%, and gunshots on blocks with the highest initial levels of gunshots cause an increase in the number of business deaths by 7.5%. Conclusion Results suggest that efforts to improve distressed neighborhoods should target both areas with lower and higher pre-existing levels of gunshots.

Impacts of California Proposition 47 on crime in Santa Monica, California

We examine patterns of reported crime in Santa Monica, California before and after the passage of Proposition 47, a 2014 initiative that reclassified some non-violent felonies as misdemeanors. We also investigate impacts of the opening of four new light rail stations in 2016 and of increased community-based policing starting in late 2018. Our statistical analyses of reclassified crimes—larceny, fraud, possession of narcotics, forgery, receiving/possessing stolen property—and non-reclassified ones are based on publicly available reported crime data from 2006 to 2019. These analyses examine reported crime at various levels: city-wide, within eight neighborhoods, and within a 450-meter radius of the new transit stations. Monthly reported reclassified crimes increased city-wide by approximately 15% after enactment of Proposition 47, with a significant drop observed in late 2018. Downtown exhibited the largest overall surge. Reported non-reclassified crimes fell overall by approximately 9%. Areas surrounding two new train stations, including Downtown, saw significant increases in reported crime after train service began. While reported reclassified crimes increased after passage of Proposition 47, non-reclassified crimes, for the most part, decreased or stayed constant, suggesting that Proposition 47 may have impacted reported crime in Santa Monica. Reported crimes decreased in late 2018 concurrent with the adoption of new community-based policing measures. Follow-up studies needed to confirm long-term trends may be challenging due to the COVID-19 pandemic that drastically changed societal conditions. While our research detects changes in reported crime, it does not provide causative explanations. Our work, along with other considerations relevant to public utility, respect for human rights, and existence of socioeconomic disparities, may be useful to law enforcement and policymakers to assess the overall effect of Proposition 47.

False Allegations in Rape, Stalking, and Gang-Stalking

False allegations account for a proportion of most forms of reported crime, complicating the tasks of law enforcement personnel, prosecutorial authorities, and those involved in risk assessment and management. This chapter examines the research evidence on false claims of victimization in three specific areas, namely rape, stalking, and the associated phenomenon of “gang-stalking.” Studies of false allegations are beset with methodological difficulties that until comparatively recently have not been directly addressed, and this chapter focuses on the better designed research exercises. In particular, motivations for making false accusations are examined, as well as differences between identified true and false accusations, which are of practical interest to threat assessors. The most salient factors from the literature that may indicate a need for suspicion regarding the veracity of a claim are highlighted within practice boxes, which are accompanied by illustrative case examples.