Page 28 - June July 2017

Elite Investigative Journal
Female Criminality in India , pg 28-34
©2014-2017 SYT Global, Inc.

Female Criminality in India

By Divya Vikram

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Photo Courtesy of google.com P
Recently, the Bangalore police nabbed a 40-year old serial killer. A chain snatching gang was caught by Delhi
Police. And there is one startling theory coming forward-both had women as criminal and that they were per- U
forming acts that were hitherto relatively unheard as done by women in India before – serial-killing and rob- N
bery. Crime, in India, is not a male bastion anymore. I

However, when it comes to crime, until the last twenty years, the lack of literature on female criminality is often S
astounding. One reason given for lack of interest is that females have traditionally been seen as law-abiding. It H
is certainly true in the context of what the statistics speak but sex crime ration differ depending on what act is M
being considered as crime. The different involvement in crime of men and women is one of the most striking
and criminological truth, and it is therefore surprising that it has to be more widely studied in order to ascertain E
are its causes. N
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The history of mankind reveals that the woman has been the foundation stone of a family in particular and soci-
ety in general. Since the dawn of civilization, women have been seen as preservers of social norms, traditions,
customs, morality and family cohesiveness. Woman has been given a position of pride in every religion. My
immediate concern is why the woman, who is considered to be foundation stone of family and every spiritual
faith, without whose blessings the work of infusing new life into humanity cannot be accomplished, has gone
astray making her mark on the crime scene and this is what has encouraged me to write this paper of women’s
involvement in criminality in the social, cultural, economic and political milieu of India.

The gravity of the challenge increases manifold when we go through the latest available data on crime from the
National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). While women criminals are still a minority- they comprise only 5%
of the criminals convicted for heinous crimes. The Crime in India Reports reveal that the number of females
arrested for criminal’s activities in 2003 were 1,51,675, and this shot up to 1,54,635 in 2007. Also, interestingly,
the nature of crimes committed by them too, is gradually witnessing a sea change- from softer crimes like drug
trafficking and prostitution to heinous crimes like murder. 3439 women were arrested for murder in 2005 and
3812 in 2007 that is an increase from 5.4% in 2005 to 6% in 2007 (NCRB figures). Also most of the crimes
committed by females are ones in the age group 30-45 years.

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