Women are more vulnerable to sexual assaults by people they trust, according to statistics compiled by the National Crime Records Bureau.
CHENNAI – Women are more vulnerable to sexual assaults by people they trust, according to statistics compiled by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). Statistics shows 86% of rape victims across the country knew the offender, who were either a family member or a close relative whom the victim would normally have no reason to fear.
Of the 37,413 rape cases reported in the country in 2014, as many as 32,187 victims knew their assailants. The assailants were family members or relatives or neighbours or friends of the victims.
The NCRB report said as many as 674 offenders were family members of victims. They included grandfather, father, brother and son. It has said 966 of the offenders were close family members of the victims, relatives (2,217), neighbours (8,344), co-workers (618) and other people known to the victims (19,368).
It has revealed that rape offenders in Himachal Pradesh (100%), Chandigarh (100%), the Lakshadweep (100%), Orissa (99.9%), Tamil Nadu (99.5%), Maharashtra (98.4%) and Uttarakhand (98.1%) had close proximity to victims.
Offenders were known to the victims in 1,104 of the 1,110 cases reported in Tamil Nadu last year.
Experts say women should beware of the threat, and the government should be more proactive about educating girls and women about the dangers they face and ensure conviction of offenders.
