Crime against women on the rise

Crimes against women are alarmingly increasing in the country. The number of crimes may actually be higher as most women do not want to report these crimes done against them in fear of social backlash. There is a tendency in our society to blame the victim of rape cases rather than the offender. The law should not see the affiliation of the criminals, but the crime only. Usually influential criminals go scot free. This increases a culture of impunity encouraging potential offenders to act in similar manner. If this tradition of impunity is discarded, we can expect to see the number of crimes against women and children going down.

Rumana Sharmeen

Dhaka University