The Delhi police wants to conduct a sociological survey to look into the “causes of rape” and to psychoanalyse at least 100 people who have been accused of rape.
Sources aware of the development said that the survey, for which a suitable agency will be hired, will be done in view of the increasing incidences of rape and sexual violence in the city. The findings of this study and survey, officials said, will be used in controlling incidences of rape in the city.
Sources said that the Delhi police will tie up with a professional agency, which has sociological and psychological experts. The agency will be tasked to understand the cause of rape by interacting with respondents in risk prone areas, victims and the accused.
The agency will be mandated to do “psychoanalysis”, psychiatrist studies and tests of the accused in the rape cases in order to develop an effective and suitable strategy to understand the psychology and motivation of a rape accused.
“The agency, based on its findings, will give recommendations on how to deal with this kind of crime. The agency will have three months to complete the finding and submit its report,” a senior official of the department said.
Officials aware of the development said that the agency will meet key officials of the Delhi police to understand the objectives behind the study, identify the key stakeholders associated with the project, prepare a questionnaire consisting of a series of questions for the purpose of gathering information from respondents and select a sample for the survey.
“The agency will also be required to do a ‘pre-testing’ on a subset of the target population to find if the questions elicit the desired information and to make sure that possible misinterpretations and misunderstandings, which may arise in the future, are rectified in the beginning itself,” the official stated.
“It will be the responsibility of the research agency to identify the various target groups which would be important to achieve the objectives of the study. The target groups (at least 1,000 people) will include people in affected areas, victims and their acquaintances. It will be also required to do in-depth interviews, and the psychoanalysis of a minimum 100 accused and convicts in rape cases. This can be done by psychiatrists either through a psychometric test, questionnaire or any other method available for psychoanalysis. The study will also determine whether the accused committed the crime due to any events in his early childhood, the reason for his behaviour, his experience and any conflict between conscious and unconscious material that resulted in the mental disturbance,” an official, quoting the directions issued by the Delhi police, said.