Police In India: A Victims Perspective

Modern policing includes prevention and detection of crime, maintenance of public order and so on and it cannot be easily quantified to evaluate their performance. For example, it is difficult for the police to state precisely the number of crimes they have prevented during any specified period. Therefore, successful police performance cannot be evaluated with a mere statistical inference. People witness deteriorating standards in police performance at the police station level and victims of increasing police harassment and high-handedness. Therefore, there should be an alternative to this practice that will reflect the true position of the police. It should be public estimate rather than that of the police chief that must count. Hence to evaluate the police performance, certain vital norms should be incorporated to meet the public expectations more particularly the perception of victims, could be considered. This book articulates the perception of victims of violent crimes vis-à-vis police performance. The study signifies, the perception of victims of violent crimes towards police could be considered as one of the norms to evaluate the performance of the police.