When Aldous Huxley came to India in January 1926, he visited Taj Mahal in Agra. He did not admire the monument and felt uncomfortable about the fact that he did not like a building, which was regarded as one of the seven wonders of the world.
Presently, one feels the “same sense of discomfort” on going against the general trend of opinion about how the Delhi gang rape incident and its aftermath should be viewed and dealt with. In the knee jerk reactions that followed the incident, most bizarre and outlandish suggestions were made not only by general public but even by eminent people from different walks of life. The electronic media went wild, with people demanding chemical castration, death penalty, hanging or burning the accused in public, denying them opportunities to appeal on conviction from the trial court etc. Even the government or the ruling party reacted in an emotional way and agreed with some of the suggestions to appease the public anger. Sometimes one got an impression that we were living not in a democratic but in a Taliban ruled society.
Presently, one feels the “same sense of discomfort” on going against the general trend of opinion about how the Delhi gang rape incident and its aftermath should be viewed and dealt with. In the knee jerk reactions that followed the incident, most bizarre and outlandish suggestions were made not only by general public but even by eminent people from different walks of life. The electronic media went wild, with people demanding chemical castration, death penalty, hanging or burning the accused in public, denying them opportunities to appeal on conviction from the trial court etc. Even the government or the ruling party reacted in an emotional way and agreed with some of the suggestions to appease the public anger. Sometimes one got an impression that we were living not in a democratic but in a Taliban ruled society.
Any policy that is framed in a climate of anger and revenge will be a wrong policy. Luckily, the committee to suggest changes in rape laws is headed by a judge who has the reputation of being a very balanced person, who will weigh the pros and cons before deciding about changes in laws. What is necessary is to think ahead to ensure that laws will not be misused to harass and blackmail.
In any case, the effectiveness of laws in dealing with crimes lies not in how harsh they are or how stringent is the punishment they prescribe, but in how successfully they are enforced. Research done in the field of criminology has clearly established that it is the certainty of punishment and not its severity that deters people from committing crime. Death penalty has not been able to reduce the incidence of murder in any country.
This element of certainty is missing from the scene not only because of the incompetence of the police but of the entire criminal justice system. If there is one agency which received the maximum flak for not being able to control the incident of gang rape in the capital, it is the police. The lapses of even the Transport Department were put at their doors. The agitators never stopped their chanting of “Delhi Police Hai Hai.” To some extent, this is understandable. Whenever, there is an upsurge in criminal activities or a particularly heinous crime is committed, the public tend to blame the police. The general tendency is to hold the police solely responsible for checking crime. Nobody is willing to realise that the responsibility for controlling crime is of the entire criminal justice system and not merely of the police. If the police in this country have failed the public, the courts’ performance has been an equally dismal failure. The courts are clogged with huge arrears of cases under trial. According to data compiled by the Parliamentary Research Services (PRS), on 30th September, 2010, 2.8 crore cases were pending in subordinate courts, 42 lakhs in High Courts and 55 thousands in the Supreme Court. Approximately 9% of these cases had been pending for over 10 years and further 24% cases had been pending for more than 5 years. The pendency of cases across Indian courts, instead of declining, showed a high jump during the last decade. It increased by 148% in the Supreme Court, 53% in High Courts and 36% in subordinate courts in the last 10 years.
Even if the police succeed in solving cases and arresting the criminals, the judicial system is so tardy, cumbersome and inefficient that it fails to bring them to book in time. The public feel threatened and unsafe and the police feel beleaguered and harassed. This is when the fake encounter specialist takes charge and decides to do away with the trouble maker if trouble cannot be otherwise tackled. The type of societal anger seen on streets following the gang rape incident is likely to give rise to public vigilantism. We must remember and guard against such tendency as public vigilantism will always be followed by police vigilantism, as happened way back in Bhagalpur in Bihar.
Even the society must own up its responsibility to help in dealing with crime. After all, some of those who came out on the streets chanting slogans could have been the same persons who witnessed the two victims on the road in the freezing cold and did not do anything to help them. This was not the only incident where public acted only as a mute spectator.
Our expectations of the police in preventing crime are more than what is warranted by the experience and arrangements. However unpalatable it may sound, it must be recognised that the ability of the police to prevent crime, particularly in democratic countries, is inadequate and imperfect. The police can prevent crime only to a limited extent. In fact, crime is due to various factors over most of which the police have no control. The public do not always realise this and it is their exaggerated demands and expectations that often create pressures, forcing the police to respond by being tough and aggressive, taking recourse to short cuts.
If crime has to be controlled, the whole criminal justice system must work so that crime does no longer remain a “low risk, high profit business.” Some major problems confronting the criminal justice system are the absence of adequate number of well trained investigating and prosecuting officers, lack of adequate courts, cumbersome procedures, resulting in huge pendency of criminal cases, inordinate delay in deciding them and even when decided very low rate of conviction in serious crimes. Let the resources be devoted to improving the functioning of the entire criminal justice system.
In any case, the effectiveness of laws in dealing with crimes lies not in how harsh they are or how stringent is the punishment they prescribe, but in how successfully they are enforced. Research done in the field of criminology has clearly established that it is the certainty of punishment and not its severity that deters people from committing crime. Death penalty has not been able to reduce the incidence of murder in any country.
This element of certainty is missing from the scene not only because of the incompetence of the police but of the entire criminal justice system. If there is one agency which received the maximum flak for not being able to control the incident of gang rape in the capital, it is the police. The lapses of even the Transport Department were put at their doors. The agitators never stopped their chanting of “Delhi Police Hai Hai.” To some extent, this is understandable. Whenever, there is an upsurge in criminal activities or a particularly heinous crime is committed, the public tend to blame the police. The general tendency is to hold the police solely responsible for checking crime. Nobody is willing to realise that the responsibility for controlling crime is of the entire criminal justice system and not merely of the police. If the police in this country have failed the public, the courts’ performance has been an equally dismal failure. The courts are clogged with huge arrears of cases under trial. According to data compiled by the Parliamentary Research Services (PRS), on 30th September, 2010, 2.8 crore cases were pending in subordinate courts, 42 lakhs in High Courts and 55 thousands in the Supreme Court. Approximately 9% of these cases had been pending for over 10 years and further 24% cases had been pending for more than 5 years. The pendency of cases across Indian courts, instead of declining, showed a high jump during the last decade. It increased by 148% in the Supreme Court, 53% in High Courts and 36% in subordinate courts in the last 10 years.
Even if the police succeed in solving cases and arresting the criminals, the judicial system is so tardy, cumbersome and inefficient that it fails to bring them to book in time. The public feel threatened and unsafe and the police feel beleaguered and harassed. This is when the fake encounter specialist takes charge and decides to do away with the trouble maker if trouble cannot be otherwise tackled. The type of societal anger seen on streets following the gang rape incident is likely to give rise to public vigilantism. We must remember and guard against such tendency as public vigilantism will always be followed by police vigilantism, as happened way back in Bhagalpur in Bihar.
Even the society must own up its responsibility to help in dealing with crime. After all, some of those who came out on the streets chanting slogans could have been the same persons who witnessed the two victims on the road in the freezing cold and did not do anything to help them. This was not the only incident where public acted only as a mute spectator.
Our expectations of the police in preventing crime are more than what is warranted by the experience and arrangements. However unpalatable it may sound, it must be recognised that the ability of the police to prevent crime, particularly in democratic countries, is inadequate and imperfect. The police can prevent crime only to a limited extent. In fact, crime is due to various factors over most of which the police have no control. The public do not always realise this and it is their exaggerated demands and expectations that often create pressures, forcing the police to respond by being tough and aggressive, taking recourse to short cuts.
If crime has to be controlled, the whole criminal justice system must work so that crime does no longer remain a “low risk, high profit business.” Some major problems confronting the criminal justice system are the absence of adequate number of well trained investigating and prosecuting officers, lack of adequate courts, cumbersome procedures, resulting in huge pendency of criminal cases, inordinate delay in deciding them and even when decided very low rate of conviction in serious crimes. Let the resources be devoted to improving the functioning of the entire criminal justice system.
