New Delhi, June 8 (IANS) India recorded 58.86 lakh cognisable crimes in 2024, down 6 per cent from the previous year with the all-India crime rate falling from 448.3 to 418.9 per lakh population, a report said on Monday.

The report from SBI Research said crimes against women declined 1.5 per cent, from 4.48 lakh cases in 2023 to 4.41 lakh in 2024, but cybercrime rose 17 per cent, crossing 1 lakh cases from 86,420 in 2023. The report attributed the overall decline in conventional crime to stronger public investment, enhanced surveillance and greater digitisation.

The research firm found that a 1 per cent increase in per‑capita public capital outlay is associated with about a 0.36 per cent lower crime rate.

Cities with higher CCTV density tend to record lower crime growth. Digitization through tools such as UPI, FASTag and digital surveillance further increases the probability of detection, raising the expected cost of committing crime.

More than 84,000 CCTV surveillance cameras had been installed across the 100 Smart Cities, along with 1,884 emergency call boxes, 3,000 public address systems.

Our estimates suggest that a 1 per cent decline in crime is associated with about 0.11 per cent higher real GDP growth in the short run, with the long-run effect rising to 0.13 per cent.

States with higher crimes against women tend to exhibit lower female labour force participation, suggesting that safety influences mobility, employment choices and economic opportunity.

States such as Haryana, Kerala, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh record crime against women rates above the national average, while female labour force participation remains relatively low or only moderate.

While NCRB recorded only 1.21 lakh victims under cruelty by husband or relatives in 2024, juxtaposing with NFHS-based estimates suggest that nearly, an estimated 5.94 lakh cases should have reached the police.

However, only about 20.4 per cent of likely police-contact cases are reflected in NCRB statistics and roughly 4.73 lakh cases may have remained unreported as possibly there were no FIR filed, the report noted.

—IANS

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