Soon, multi-disciplinary group to assess violence pattern in city

Nagpur: Nagpur police will soon have a multi-disciplinary study group which will assess the violence pattern, specially murder, attempt to murder and assault cases, rising in the city in the last 20 years.
Giving this information city police chief Amitesh Kumar on Monday said he will rope in experts from institutions like National Law University (NLU), Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Tirpude Institute of Management and such institutions to analyse the reason behind high numbers of violence taking place in the city, and take action accordingly.
“Following a reference made by state home minister Dilip Walse Patil, we have a plan to find out the reason behind such rage in the minds of criminals. In the last 20 years, there had been around 20,000 murders in the city with an annual average of 100 and the peak reaching with 135 in one year. We need to see whether it’s anthropological, socio-economical or even cultural aspect behind such high numbers of murders,” Kumar said, adding the officers are now in the process of talking to various organizations to explore the possibilities to rope in their experts to study the crime pattern vis-à-vis the social background of criminals.
Kumar, who have been trying to check crimes especially murders, expressed his deep concern over close family members killing their elderly kin for no concrete reasons and also the street rages, leading to mindless violence.
Former CP BK Upadhyay and incumbent Addl DG state traffic said the body offences have reduced over the period of last two decades but the prevalence of even a small number of such crimes put a blot on the city’s image. “Employment, education and lack of industrialization are one of the major factors in these crimes. One may see the connection of less opportunity for employment pushing up the crime. The same can be said about education,” Upadhyay who has served the city on various capacities for at least 10 years, said.
Renowned psychiatrist Dr Sudhir Bhave underlined the sociological factors behind the occurrences of violent crimes. “The living surrounding and the quality of its ambience contributes to a person’s behaviour too. When something undesirable (like crime) starts becoming common then it gets ‘normalized’ too for a person perceiving it,” he said.
“The squalor of the slum and the aggression of the people staying in them often gets reflected in their outwardly behaviour which many times transpired to activities like crime. Authorities should improve the conditions of the slums which may improve the thoughts of the dwellers here too,” he said.