Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Life-Course Epidemiology and Social Inequalities in Health
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1362406

Crime Against Women in India: District level risk estimation using small area estimation approach

Provisionally accepted
Pooja B S Pooja B S 1Vasudeva Guddattu Vasudeva Guddattu 2*Aruna Rao Aruna Rao 3
  • 1 Department of Data Science, Prasanna School of Public Health, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka, India
  • 2 Department of Data Science, Prasanna School of Public Health, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, India
  • 3 Department of Statistics, Faculty of Science and Technology, Mangalore University, Mangalore, India

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The global prevalence of crimes against women has made it an enduring public health challenge that has persisted over time. The achievement of the 2030 sustainable development goal is intricately tied to the actions taken to prevent these crimes, as their repercussions directly affect progress across various sustainable development goals. This study aimed to provide a comprehensive examination of the prevalence of crimes against women across districts and states in India, analyzing changes from 2020 to 2022, and subsequently identifying associated factors.The study is an ecological analysis conducted across all districts of India using the data on crimes against women for the period 2020 & 2022 obtained from the National Crime Record Bureau of India. A small area estimation method was used to obtain district-level relative risks of crime against women for both periods. Hotspot analysis was carried out to identify the current hotspots and cold spots. Further spatial regression was used to identify the factors associated with crimes against women in the year 2022.Results: Results indicated a rise in the reported crime against women cases between 2020 and 2022. The rate of crimes against women at the national level was found to be 57 in the year 2020, whereas, in 2022, it increased to 67. The highest crime rate in the year 2022 was found to be 145 in Delhi, while Nagaland had the lowest crime rate of 5. The relative risk of crime against women varied from 0.046 to 4.68 in 2020, while in 2022, it spanned from 0.02 to 6.10. Significant hotspots were found in parts of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Telangana, and Odisha. The results of the spatial error regression model showed that the sex ratio and the population density of the district have significant associations with the occurrence of crimes against women. The rise in the incidence of crime against women emphasizes the importance of tackling the spatial inequality in relative risk across Indian districts. Thoughtfully addressing this variation and conducting targeted studies in high-risk areas can enhance our understanding of the obstacles to implementing effective measures against violence targeting women.

    Keywords: Women, Crime, Public Health, Small area estimation, spatial disparity, hotspots

    Received: 12 Jan 2024; Accepted: 19 Jun 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 B S, Guddattu and Rao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Vasudeva Guddattu, Department of Data Science, Prasanna School of Public Health, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, India

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.