Why are career violent crimes higher in India than in US/West?

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Why are career violent crimes higher in India than in West?

Introduction : career crimes vs spontenous crimes
About career crimes
Low conviction rate is sufficient to wipe out career crimes
Why is career violent crimes less in US?
How can citizens of India reduce career crimes in India

Introduction

The violent crimes are higher in US than in India. But India has more violence than in Western countries like France, Germany, Sweden, Australia, Finland, Norway etc.

But now lets divide violent crimes into two categories --- career and non-career. Allow me to eloberate.

Say two persons, whose daily activities are pefectly legal, and are drunk. Due to some ill comments made by one, they get into a fight, and one hurts/kills another.

Now consider a street criminal, often known as "daadaa" or "bhai" in India. These criminals routinely harass the shop-keepers, builders etc and force them to pay "protection money" known as "haftaa" every month. Say a shop-keeper refuses to pay the money. In such case, the mafia is quiet likely to beat the person, or even kill him, to set an example.

The above two types of crimes are considerably different. The second crime is what I call as CAREER violent crime, while first one is what I call as spontaneous crime. Following are the main difference

The criminal in a career crime is a full-time criminal, who plans to make a career and a steady income from violence, threats etc. While in first case, the criminal had no econonic motive, nor crime is is his career
The career criminal plans the crime, he has gang, and is capable of threatening the witness. He may be wealthy enough to bribe policemen, govt lawyers and judges. And he also may have nexuses with local leaders. While spontaneous criminal will, in general, a person living next door, who may , or may not be wealthy and may or may not have nexuses with policemen, judges etc. In general, he wont.
The career criminal, is very likely to repeat his actions. In fact, it is guaranted that he try to victimize as many people as he can. While in case, spontanous criminals, he must be punished and not punishing him would make everyone in the socieyty more irresponsible. But compared to career criminals, he is much much less likely to repeat crimes.
The career criminal will try to expand his criminal activities by recuiting more and more gang members and victimizing more and more persons. The spontaneous criminal has no such ambitions.

Both criminals needs to be punished. But in cases, the spontneous criminal may deserve leniency, while the career criminal deserves none. Also, the career crimes have a tendency to multiply, since if the career criminal gets away, more and more people will adopt crime as a career. And last, the career crimes may make small businessmen etc flee and thus wreck the economy. The sponteneous crimes never wreck the economy.

The career violent crimes are much much more rampant in India in US. In parts of India, these criminals operate OPENLY, and sometime they run a parallel govt. In countries like Germany, France, UK, Sweden etc, career violent crimes simply do NOT exist.

The purpose of this article is to enumerate and discuss ONLY

factors which increase career violent crimes in policemen in India, and are absent in West.
factors which will decrease corruption/nexuses in policemen in US/West, and are present in India.

The purpose of this article is NOT to enumerate factors that are present/absent in BOTH countries. Hence a large number of factors, such as moral values, greed etc will get dismissed as non-issues. Why? Becuase greed is present in US/West as well as India. And moral values are at same level in India as well as West.

Two facts about career crimes

There are 2 basic facts about career violent criminals

career criminals, like those who collect protection money, need to victimize a large number of persons regularly, and cannot survive otherwise
A conviction rate of as low as 5%, or even 2%, is sufficient to weed out these criminals.

I will eloberate.

A career voilent criminal, perticularly those who collect protection money, work by threatening persons. To operate freely, the criminals need support from local MLAs, local policemen, local govt lawyers and local judges. A bigger criminal would need support from Ministers, senior policemen and senior judges as well. To obtain support, the criminal has to shell out thousands and lakhs rupees to EACH of these MLA/Minister, policemen, govt layers, private lawyers, judges EVERY MONTH. In addition, the ganglord needs to maintain a gang of several small criminals and need to pay them every month. The total monthly payments will run into lakhs and sometimes crores of rupees.

The ganglord gets this money by victimizing businessmen, shopkeepers, builders etc. But no single victim can pay such a huge money. So the ganglord victimizes 100s and 1000s of persons every months.

Low conviction rate is sufficient to wipe out career crimes

Now lets see how a conviction rate of just 5% or even 2% is sufficient to eliminate career criminals. Say a ganglord with a gang of 50-100 gangsters operates in 1-2 nearby cities or part of a large city. Say he needs to pay bribes of Rs 5-10 crore a month to MLAs, local policemen, local govt lawyers and local judges. Say he needs to spend Rs 1 cr additional on salaries of gangsters, their weapons/logistics and pay fees of his private lawyers. To that, he needs to add his personal target. So say he needs to collect Rs 7 to 12 cr a month, say Rs 10cr. Now a typical victim is say capable of paying only Rs 2000 to Rs 10000 a month, say Rs 5000 on an average. So he needs to victimize some 10000 to 50000 persons every month.

When a gangsters try to threaten so many persons every month, they will have indulge into 100s/1000s of threats and 10s of fights and may even end up hurting many persons. So it is quite likely that 10-30 persons will file complaint against them before policemen/judges every month. i.e. say 150-400 complaints every year. Now say conviction rate is just 5%. In such case, every 10-15 members of gang will land into prison for 3-7 years. With each gang member landing in prison, the other gangsters' morale will break, and they will start quitting gang. In a short span of a few months, the ganglord's gang will melt down.

In general, say a criminal comitts several crimes a year. Say chances that he will get caught and land in prison are low, mere p%. Then what is the probability that he will free even after comitting N crimes? The mathematical answer is
[1-(1-p)^N]
So if chances of imprisonment is just 5%, then probability that he will be free after comitting 100 crimes is [1 - (1 - 0.05)^100] = 1%. i.e. chances are 99% that person will land in prison, even if chances of getting caught is just 5%. And even if chances of imprisonment are as low as 2%, the probability that he will be still free after comitting 100 crimes is mere 13%.

So a career criminal, who needs to comit 100s and 1000s of crimes every year will get wrecked even if conviction rate is low.

How is above "gyaan" useful?

What it means is that we dont need extra-ordinarily efficient and accurate courts, govt lawyers and policemen to solve the problem of career violent crimes. If policemen, govt lawyers and courts in India can catch and convict career criminal in just 5% of cases like beatings or killings, it will be sifficient to reduce career violent crimes in India to Western level.

Now the conviction rate in India is about 6% to 8%. Then how come we cant control the problem career crimes like protection money? The problem is --- this is the conviction rate for ALL crimes, career as well sponteneous. The conviction rate in career crimes is NOT even 0.1%. Why? The spontaneous criminals are often poor, and have no nexuses with judges, govt lawyers, policemen etc. Many times, the spontaneous criminal fails to hire a good private lawyer for himself. So he gets convicted. In most cases, the spontaneous criminals is also NOT capable of threatening witnesses and rigging the medical/foresnsic reports. While a career criminal is wealthy, and has nexuses with policemen, judges etc; and the career criminal even manages to hire a good private lawyer. He also manages to threaten/bribe witnesses and rig the medical/forensic reports. And so he manages to get himself acquited. Since the conviction for career criminal is so low, the career crimes, like collecting protection money, thrives in India.

Why are career violent crimes LESS in US/West and so high in India?

A remarkable distinction between US and India, is that while US does have a fair share of neighborhoods which has high crimes, there are NO open criminals who collect protection money from small/middle businesses. And such violence is unheard in Europe. Even in Japan, only a small fraction of high level businessmen need to pay protection money --- small/middle businesses DO NOT face such harassment. Why is it so?

Reasons are trivial. ---

The Jury System :
The MOST important reason why west has lesser career violent open crimes compared to India is that West has Jury System, while India follows the judge system. Allow me to explain how Jury System kills career crimes.

Consider a gangster with 50-100 gang members who operates in a city or 1-2 cities. As I explained earlier, he will have to victimize 1000s of persons every month. So every month, some 10-20 persons, out of frustration and pain, will end up filing complaints against him in the courts. This is where The Jury System and the judge system makes KEY difference. Consider a ganglord with 50-100 gang members who is facing say 100-200 cases every year in some 1-2 cities. In India, which uses the judge system, all cases will go before mere 3-5-8 Magistrates/judges. So the ganglord in India ONLY needs to bribe out 3-8 individuals (the Magistrates/judges) and bingo ... he and his gang-members will get all the 'benefit of doubt" they would need. Where as the nations which use The Jury System, these 100-200 a year cases may land before 100-200 Juries, each Jury consisting of 10-15 say 12 members. Hence the ganglord will need to bribe about 1000-2000 citizens, which 100s of time more difficult task then bribing 3-5 judges.

Also, in case of bribing judges, since the judges preside over 100s of cases, a criminal after forming nexus with a judge can use the nexus over and over again in months and year to come to get away. While in The Jury System, the Jurors change with every trial. So even if a ganglord manages to form nexuses with members of one Jury and get away, those nexuses will NOT help in next cases and time to come.

In short, if a person needs to comit 100s of crimes a year, the Jury System will make this task 100s of time more difficult compared to the judge system. The Jury System is the MAIN REASON why West does NOT see career violent crime, like collecting protection money from shop-keepers, builders etc. while such crimes are rampant in India.
Lack of election of public prosecutors :
In US, in a large number of districts, the govt lawyers are DIRECTLY elected by citizens, and in many districts, there is also an easy procedure for citizens to recall them. So the govt lawyers in US take LESS interest in forming nexuses with career criminals and protect them beyond a point. Hence more serious prosecution, and lesser crimes. In India, the govt lawyers are appointed by Law Ministers, who are so far from common citizens that govt lawyers are practically immune to citizens' opinion. Hence govt lawyers in India are NOT at all worried about forming nexuses with criminals.
Lack of election of district police chiefs
: In US, in a large number of districts, almost all districts, the police chiefs are DIRECTLY elected by citizens, and in many districts, there is also an easy procedure for citizens to recall them. So the police chiefs in US take LESS interest in forming nexuses with career criminals and protect them beyond a point. Hence lesser crimes. In India, the district police chiefs are appointed by CM and Home Ministers, who are so far from common citizens that district police chiefs are practically immune to citizens' opinion. Hence district police chiefs in India are NOT at all worried about forming nexuses with criminals.
Lack of Jury System and Grand Jury System over policemen :
In US/West, the policemen are supervised NOT just MLAs/Ministers and judges, but also by Jurors and Grand Jurors. In India, there are NO Jurors and Grand Jurors. So the junior policemen are supervised ONLY by MLA/Ministers and judges. In US as well as India, the policemen manage to nexuses with them. So in India, effectively, there is NO supervision over policemen, while in US, there is a strong nexusless supervision over policemen by Jurors and Grand Jurors. So the policemen always have a fear, that of their nexuses, if any, with criminals, get exposed, the Jurors and Grand Jurors are least likely to spare them. So policemen cultivate fewer nexuses with criminals and hence lesser career crimes.
Crime records are indexed :
The crimes records in US/West are extensively indexed by ID-number (such as social security number) of the suspects, accused, convicts etc. This improves efficiency of policemen, govt lawyers as well judges/Jurors in punishing the criminals (as well as acquitting innocents). Hence faster/more convictions, and so lesser crimes.
Criminalization of vices like drugs, liquor, gambling and prostitution :
The criminalization of vices has made good law abiding citizens, or fearful citizens, to quit the field of supplying these vices. As a result, the vaccum is filled by violent criminals. Consider prostitution. In India, prostitution is a lesser crime, with minor punishments, but pimping may fetch punishment of several years in prison. As a result, no fearful or law abinding citizen would dare to be a pimp or run a brothel. So entire pimping and brothel-running business has come under violent criminals. This results into greater physical/financial exploitation of prostitutes and financial exploitation of clients. And worse, the profits of this trades strenghens a violent criminal. In the same, since liquor is criminalized in parts of India, such as Gujarat, the liquor business is now under control of violent criminals. And the profits are strenghening the violent criminals. Ditto in case of drugs and gambling.

By de-criminalizing these 4 vices, the citizens of India can reduce the financial and hence over all strength of violent criminals.

Solution : what can citizens do to reduce career crimes in India?

Steps 1-3 : The citizens of India should force Panchayat Members, MLAs and MPs to following laws : LM.01 , LM.02 , LM.03. These laws would enable citizens to take subsquent steps.
Step 4 : The citizens should pass laws to enact procedure CT.02. This law will create a Jury System in every district over policemen, which will create a nexusless way of supervising junior policemen, and thus create a check on policemen. This will reduce career crimes.
Step 5 : The citizens should pass laws to enact procedure CT.12. This procedure will enable the citizens to elect/recall district police chief.
Step 6 : The citizens should pass laws to enact procedure CT.11. This procedure will enable the citizens to elect/recall district public prosecutor.
Step 7 : The citizens of India should pass laws to enact ID.01 procedure. This will enable the junior officers of India to index the crime data, and improve policemen's efficiency.
Step 8 : The citizens, using LM.01-03 should pass laws to decriminalize vics like drugs, liquor, gambling and prostitution. This will reduce oppurtunities for policemen to collect bribes, and would give them more time and resources to chase real criminals like murderers, theives etc

These TRIVIAL steps will redudce violent crimes in India to a level as low as in West.

If you have any questions, please mail it to MehtaRahulC@yahoo.com. Thousand thanks in advance.