Evaluating Effectiveness Of Legal Framework For Sexual Crimes: Evidence From Rape Victims Of Different Age Groups In India
Neelam Kumari, University Department of Law, Patna University, Patna, Bihar
Dr. Yogendra Kumar Verma, University Department of Law, Patna University, Patna, Bihar
ABSTRACT
Rape victims undergo repeated psychological trauma throughout their life. The feeling of social abandoned makes them helpless with irrecoverable pain. They suffer because of social myth that their lifestyle and openness is the cause of rape on them. They themselves are blamed for the sexual assaults conducted upon them. Legal solutions may provide justice to them by punishing offenders harshly but fear of stringent consequences further provokes offender to destroy victims and related evidences completely. India is evidencing growth in the rape cases with murder particularly in age group of 18-45 years. Many amendments have been done so far to make laws harsher for the offenders and friendly for the victims but majority of the rape cases still remains unreported. Legal provisions alone could not function effectively in the absence of speedy trials and disposal of cases. Conviction rate in rape cases is very low. This study intends to verify the role of conviction rate in controlling growth of rape cases using statistical analysis by correlating data collected from NCRB. Various reports, research work, legal provisions with amendments and case laws have been referred to conduct this study. The aim of this research work is to evaluate the effectiveness of legal framework to control rape incidences among different age groups in India.
Keywords: Rape, Conviction Rate, Speedy Trials, Victims, Social Myth
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