Decade of crime data shows consistent rise in rape

Murder, attempted murder see decrease towards tail end of examined period

LAHORE: Whether it is a new commander of the Punjab Police or a political government, both have consistently claimed a decrease in crime rates. However, data analysis of ten years — from 2006 to 2016 —aims to reveal the truth behind the claims. While murder and attempted murder cases saw a slight decline towards the tail end of this period, after a steady increase over eight years, crimes such as rape have consistently been on the rise. At least two political governments and ten inspector generals of Punjab Police have changed hands in these ten years.

The data used by Express Tribune for analysis is official and compiled by the Punjab Police.

The Express Tribune has considered only murder, attempted murder and rape under the head of crime against persons, while burglaries, robbery, and motor vehicle theft have been categorised under crimes against property. Apart from the mentioned heads and hunting, rioting, assault, cattle theft, and ordinary stealing, other crimes have been placed under miscellaneous.

As many as 1,519 rape cases were registered in 2006, 1,497 in 2007, 2,023 in 2008, 2,345 in 2009, 2,581 in 2010, 2,687 in 2011, 2,606 in 2012, 2,576 in 2013, 2,711 in 2014, 2,737 in 2015 and 2,942 in 2016. Data revealed that the number almost doubled in the span of ten years.

Also consistently on the rise was the total number of registered cases in Punjab. A total of 342,561 cases were registered in 2006, 344,925 in 2007, 385,616 in 2008, 383,379 in 2009, 386,437 in 2010,  419,365 in 2011, 395,006 in 2012, 389,932 in 2013, 389,554 in 2014,  382,932 in 2015 and 408,283 in 2016.



A total of 5,233 murder cases were registered in 2006, 5,184 in 2007, 5,671 in 2008, 5,836 in 2009, 6,242 in 2010, 6,666 in 2011, 6,312 in 2012, 6,095 in 2013 and 6,094 in 2014. However, there was a sharp decrease to 4,522 in 2015 and 4,112 in 2016. As for attempted murder, at least 7,385 cases were registered in 2006, 6,755 in 2007, 7,128 in 2008, 6,784 in 2009, 7,309 in 2010, 7,722 in 2011, 7,549 in 2012, 6,874 in 2013 and 7,083 in 2014.

In 2015, the number decreased to 5,170. The year 2016 was another decrease as the number of cases fell to 4,564.

In terms of dacoity, at least 1,824 incidents were reported in 2006, 1,446 in 2007, 2,136 in 2008, 2,352 in 2009, 2,752 in 2010, 3,771 in 2011, 3,099 in 2012, 2,768 in 2013 and 2,302. Once again, there was a sharp decline in such cases in 2015 and 2016 with 1,537 and 951 cases, respectively. Robbery cases, on the other hand, saw a hike in numbers before trailing off towards the end of the period from when this data was collected. There were at least 10,567 cases registered in 2006, 11,225 in 2007, 2,136 in 2008, 2,352 in 2009, 2,752 in 2010, 3,771 in 2011, 17,833 in 2012, 18,289 in 2013 and 19,610 in 2014. The number started to fall ultimately to 16,388 in 2015 and 13,675 in 2016.

As for burglary, 9,927 cases were recorded in 2006, 8,703 in 2007, 11,216 in 2008 11,561 in 2009, 12,683 in 2010, 14,991 in 2011, 14,686 in 2012, 13,928 in 2013 and 14,247 in 2014. Once again, there was a decrease in 2015 and 2016 when the number of registered cases fell to 12,727 and 11,627.

Vehicles theft also saw a steady increase over eight years, but tailed off over the last two years of the period from 2006 to 2016. As many as 9,492 cases were reported in 2006, 10,386 in 2007, 11,982 in 2008, 14,061 in 2009, 18,738 in 2010, 22,224 in 2011, 20,418 in 2012, 20,677 in 2013 and 20,310 were in 2014. The number fell in 2015 to 17,805 in 2015 and 16,042 in 2016. Miscellaneous crimes, however, saw a steady increase over the years. In 2006, 224,039 cases were registered under this head, while there were 235,226 in 2007, 257,200 in 2008, 252,082 in 2009, 243,094 in 2010, 258,958 in 2011, 244,017 in 2012, 246,192 in 2013, 247,811 in 2014, 258,894 in 2015 and 287,917 in 2016.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 4^th, 2019.