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The National Criminal Records Bureau of India keeps detailed criminal justice data on the number of homicide victims by sex, age and motive. In 2009, out of a total 33,159 recorded homicide victims in India, 8,718 (26 per cent) were female, about the same as in previous years. Some of these killings relate to disputes over dowry payments or violent demands for higher payments from the families of brides or brides-to-be. While the payment of a dowry has been illegal in India since 1961, the practice remains common. Among all female victims of recorded homicides, about 15 per cent (1,267) were recorded as dowry-related murders.

In addition to the data recorded as homicide, the police records “dowry deaths” under a separate section of the Indian Penal Code. These are deaths of women within seven years of their marriage for which circumstantial evidence provides a strong suspicion of a dowry-related killing. In 2009 the police recorded 8,383 of such deaths of women and girls and it can be calculated that the total number of dowry-related killings in 2009 amounted to 9,650,2 _{which corresponds to 56 per cent of all female victims of violent killings including dowry deaths (17,101). The}

reported number of such killings has been increasing for many years: the figure below plots time trends of dowry deaths (per 100,000 popula- tion) in India against homicide rates, for the period 1995-2009: while homicide levels have steadily decreased over the last 15 years (decrease of 31 per cent between 1995 and 2009), the rate of recorded dowry deaths has increased by more than 40 per cent in the same period. This increase might partly be due to more accurate recording by the police when suspicious deaths are notified, also because of increased awareness and determination to address the issue; on the other hand it is likely that, in addition to officially recorded dowry-related homicides and dowry deaths, an unknown number of deaths related to dowry remain undetected as they are often recorded as accidents or suicides.

Source: National Crime Records Bureau.

1 Section 304B of the Indian Penal Code specifies that “where the death of a woman is caused by any burns or bodily injury or occurs otherwise than under

normal circumstances within seven years of her marriage and it is shown that soon before her death she was subjected to cruelty or harassment by her husband or any relative of her husband for, or in connection with, any demand for dowry, such death shall be called ‘dowry death’ and such husband or relative shall be deemed to have caused her death”.

2 This is given by the sum of dowry-related killings (1,267) and dowry deaths (8,383) for 2009.

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This chapter focuses on the characteristics of the individuals behind the homicide figures and rates presented so far in this study. By analysing age and sex data relating to those directly involved in hom- icide while taking account of regional and typo- logical factors, those most likely to offend and those most at risk can be more easily identified and thus deterred and protected through the targeting of relevant prevention policies.

Victims by sex and age

Crime, especially violent crime, is typically a male activity and homicide is no exception. Globally, men make up the majority of violent offenders and represent over 90 per cent of prison populations in most countries. Data on homicide perpetrators show a similar pattern (see later in chapter) and men also make up 82 per cent of all victims of homicide, suggesting that the most typical homi- cide pattern is a case of men killing men (figure 5.1). While women represent a smaller share of homicide victims they are the predominant target of intimate partner/family-related violence, in which the typical homicide pattern is men killing women (as explained in detail in the previous chapter).

Against this overall global pattern, there are sig- nificant and crucial differences in the sex distribu- tion of homicide victims, which represents a key indicator of the types of homicide that are rela- tively more or less common in a given country or region. This can be illustrated by the different sex composition of homicide victims between regions, and particularly by the marked differences in the Americas and Europe; the former a region where the homicide rate is relatively high, the latter a region where it is relatively low (figure 5.2).

In the Americas females make up only 10 per cent of all homicide victims whereas they account for 19 per cent in Africa, 21 per cent in Asia, 20 per cent in Oceania and 27 percent in Europe. This different sex structure indicates a different typol- ogy of homicides in different parts of the world, with greater shares of male homicide victims asso- ciated with larger shares of homicides perpetrated in the context of gang/organized crime-related lethal violence. The smaller share of female victims among the total number of homicides in the Americas does not, however, equate to a lower female homicide rate there in comparison to other regions.

Indeed, as figure 5.3 shows, the Americas have a high female homicide victim rate. It is the exceptional number of homicides affecting males in the Americas that makes the share of female homicides particularly low in that region. Data also indicate that Africa is the region with the highest female homicide rate, showing that where high homicide rates are not driven to the same extent by organized crime, street crime, non- specific lethal violence and/or intimate partner/ Fig. 5.1: Percentage distribution of

homicide victims globally by sex (2008)

Source: UNODC Homicide Statistics (2011). .

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Fig. 5.3: Female homicide rates by region (2008)

Source: UNODC Homicide Statistics (2011).

family-related homicide all play an important role and women evidently fall victim to all three. Unfortunately, the lack of data characterising Africa, for example on additional features of homicides, such as their contexts and the killing mechanism, makes more detailed analyses impossible. As can be expected, the patterns of male homicide rates mirror the regional patterns examined in previous chapters and the highest levels are found in the Americas and Africa. After the sex structure of homicide victims, the next most striking pattern of homicide victimiza- tion is that globally the risk of becoming a victim of homicide is highest for young men in the 15-29 age group and declines steeply with age thereafter. In fact, the age-specific global homicide rate of 21.2 per 100,000 for young men aged 15-29 is roughly double the age-specific global homicide rate of 10.5 for men in the 60-69 age group. This overall decline in homicide risk over the course of the male lifetime is a direct reflection of the decreasing involvement, as men age, in high-risk illicit activities such as street crime, gang member- ship, drug consumption, possession of guns, knives and other weapons, street fighting and other vio- lence-prone activities (figure 5.5).

In contrast, the global age-specific homicide rate for women is at a much lower level and it remains

Fig. 5.2: Percentage distribution of homicide victims by sex and region (2008)

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Source: UNODC Homicide Statistics (2011).

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Fig. 5.4: Male homicide rates by region (2008)

Source: UNODC Homicide Statistics (2011).

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between 3 and 4 per 100,000 for all age groups after the age of 15. This reinforces the fact that female homicides are less related to the exposure of women to high-risk activities (gangs, etc.), which occurs in younger age groups, and are more often related to intimate partner/family-related disputes (see previous chapter).

This means that the difference in age and sex- specific homicide rates between men and women narrows from a factor of about six for young age groups (21.1/3.6) to about three for older age groups (10.5/3.2 for 60 to 69 year olds).

The Americas

As is the case with the sex structure of homicide victims, there are also significant and crucial differ- ences in age structures of homicide victims in dif- ferent regions of the world that again indicate the relative importance of different types of homicide. In a sample of 29 countries in the Americas, men

Fig. 5.5: Global homicide rate by sex and age group (2008)

Source: WHO, Causes of Death 2008 dataset (2011).

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