India's Rape Problem, Mapped

India has continued to reel following the death of a gang rape victim in New Delhi, and now, as her attackers face charges, a map looks at the country through rape statistics

India has continued to reel following the death of a gang rape victim in New Delhi, and now, as her attackers face charges, a map looks at the country through rape statistics. Writing at the Wall Street Journal, Aditi Malhotra and Saptarishi Dutta explain that north India, where the recent assault took place, is "often referred to as more violent, more patriarchal, and more crime-ridden than the south." Using 2011 data from the National Crime Records Bureau, the map shows that over 2,000 more rapes were reported in the north than in the south. That said, Malhotra and Dutta add that "activists play down the notion that one area of the country is inherently safer for women than others."

An important point that the authors make—one that is also the case in the U.S.—is that it's difficult to count rapes given that incidents often go unreported. For comparisons sake, whereas India registered a total of 24,206 rape cases in 2011, according to the FBI, there were an estimated 83,425 forcible rapes reported to law enforcement that year in the U.S.

Look at the map below and read the rest of Malhotra and Dutta's analysis here.