Determining the relationship between crime pattern and responsible factors : a case study of Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh

Abstract

This thesis research attempts to determine the relationship between crime pattern and responsible factors by selecting a representative sample of various responsible factors like physical, socio-economic and demographic variables in association with crime data of Bhopal city. In eighteenth and nineteenth century researches on crime pattern of urban crime were mainly the focused subject of criminology, philosophy, sociology and anthropology but in early twentieth century researches on urban crime has focused their concern also on urban planning and design aspects rather than only focusing on criminological, philosophical, and sociological aspects, with many researches explaining why urban crime vary, why some social, economic, and spatial characteristics are correlated with variations in urban crime pattern. UN-HABITAT report, Enhancing Urban Safety and Security: Global Report on Human Settlements 2007 states “the rapid pace of urbanization coupled with the growth in city size and density is associated with increased crime and violence, also UN 'International Crime Victim Survey' (ICVS):“urbanisation is the strongest predictor for crime and victimisation” and Rajeev Gupta, Department of sociology, RU, said that the study of crime trends 1947-2014 “Changing landscape shuffles crime trends” the primary reason behind the change in the crime scene is the shift in the nature of landscape from rural to urban. The number of crime of rural areas has come down while the incidents of crime have gone up in urban areas manifold. Poor urban planning, design and management play a role in the shaping of urban environments that put citizens and property at risk and increase vulnerability to crime. The fabric and layout of cities impact on the movements of offenders and victims and on opportunities for crime”, in concern to that the primary focus of this research is focused to determine the relationship between physical, socio-economic and demographic variables with respect to IPC (Indian Penal Code) crimes of police stations in Bhopal municipal Determining The Relationship Between Crime Pattern And Responsible FactorsA Case Study Of Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh x corporation area, Madhya Pradesh, India. This study is important because urban crime approaches human settlements as generally unconscious products that emerge over long periods, through the accrual of successive generations of ill development activities. So thesis aims to find out the relationship between crime pattern and various responsible factors and to suggest suitable strategies and policies. The objectives to achieve the aim is to select responsible factors, suitable statistical and analytical tools/methods of analysis for the case study city through literature review and to select micro zone depending on crime intensity further analysing the relationship between crime pattern and responsive factors in the city and in the micro zones and to find the correlation. The methodology followed to achieve the aim by fulfilling the objectives is divided in to two parts of analysis city level analysis and micro zonal analysis with different set of responsible factors at each level and after analysing the crime pattern at city level and micro zonal the outcome is to prepare suitable strategies and policies for the study area to prevent crime. The study is limited with in the Bhopal municipal limits within the wards with selected responsible factors like socio-economic, demographic and physical. The selected responsible factors were mainly drawn from the census and Municipal Corporation and crime data from SP office and PHQ Bhopal. The findings in this study conclude that the socio-economic, demographic and physical factors make a significant contribution to the variation in the overall crime pattern. Additionally, these results suggest that policing strategies and improvements in physical plans, urban design settings, and architecture can be successfully modified through CPTED (Crime Prevention through Environmental Design) to prevent crime and through various strategies like Neighbourhood watch Scheme.