Socio-demographic Characteristics of Life Term Prisoners in a Central Jail and its Association with Reasons for Crime

Background: For planning any prevention and control strategies, the knowledge of socio-demographic factors and criminal activities is necessary. There are many studies conducted on this issue, however only few of them pertain to Indian population. Moreover, India has diverse socio-demographic and cultural practices that may influence the quantity and quality of crime.

Objectives: To study the socio-demographic characteristics of life term prisoners and its association with the reasons for committing crime.

Materials and method: A cross sectional study was conducted on 300 life term prisoners of central prison of Gulbarga. Data was collected using pre-designed and pre-tested proforma. Chi-square test was applied to test the association at 5% level of significance using statistical package SYSTAT 13.

Results: It was found that rural people, unmarried, illiterates, lower socio-economic status people were more likely to have committed the crime resulting in the conviction for life. Property dispute was the leading reason for committing crime in men and dowry in women. Gender, place of residence, education and socio-economic status were significantly associated with reasons for committing crime.

Conclusion: A further multi-centric study at larger level is recommended to identify the independent predictors of crimes leading to life imprisonment. There is an urgent need for a focussed primary prevention strategies utilizing the information on independent predictors to control the population of our overcrowded prisons.