The Crime Burden Index: Evidence from Indian Districts

Posted: 10 Jun 2008

See all articles by Payel Chowdhury

Payel Chowdhury

University of California, Irvine - Department of Economics

Kausik Chaudhuri

Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR)

Date Written: 2007-2008

Abstract

This paper focuses on the violent crime scenario in India. India faces a high level of crime incidences every year which calls for appropriate policy measures to combat the high level of crime; given limited crime prevention resources, identifying and appropriate targeting of these resources is very important. The analysis in here is done across 306 districts of thirteen major states in India. There are significant cross-sectional and temporal differences in behavior of the crime categories as seen through their summary statistics and growth rates. This difference in behavior motivates a measure of crime that will account for such differences and in turn give us an understanding of the prevalent crime scenario in India. Thus, we use Multiple Indicator Multiple Cause (MIMIC) model, which captures the differences in the crime indicators of crime and uses them along with the causal variables of crime to give us a Crime Burden Index, accounting for the possibility of measurement error in the data. The ranking based on this constructed crime burden index gives a very good understanding of the prevalent crime scenario across thirteen major states in India and their districts, and serves the purpose of its construction.

Keywords: Crime Burden Index, MIMIC, Districtwise

Suggested Citation

Chowdhury, Payel and Chaudhuri, Kausik, The Crime Burden Index: Evidence from Indian Districts (2007-2008). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1117067

Payel Chowdhury (Contact Author)

University of California, Irvine - Department of Economics ( email )

3151 Social Science Plaza
Irvine, CA 92697-5100
United States

Kausik Chaudhuri

Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR) ( email )

Gen A.K. Vaidya Marg Santoshnagar
Goregaon (East)
Bombay 400065, Maharashtra
India
91-022-840-0019 (Phone)

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