Crime and modern society

The following is an excerpt from an interview with Acharya Prashant on the topic of ‘Rape and Retribution’ in the wake of horrific incidents happening all over the country against women.

To understand associated facts and figures, may read.

Question: Acharya Ji, violence against women and crime, in general, has become a very commonplace thing in the modern society. Recently, a heinous sexual assault case came into the news and shook the entire nation due to its crudity. Acharya Ji, what lies at the root of such events? Even though we have come a long way ahead as a society, yet such crimes are at a rise, why?

Acharya Prashant: It depends on the depth to which you want to take your enquiry. If you want to keep things superficial, then the fellow who committed the act is the one behind the act. You could say just that much and close the file. You could convince and console yourself that the problem has been explained and the culprits have been lapped and punished. And it’s not that you would be wrong. It’s just that such an approach would not take you very far in the direction of really solving the problem. Unfortunately, that’s the approach most people want to take. It seems to be the easiest and the most hassle-free approach. A crime takes place, name the individuals, hunt for them and punish them. This is the most superficial and hence the least effective way of looking at the problem or solving the problem.

One level higher than these are the people whose approach is to blame it on the system. They say, yes, people are to be blamed, but people are driven by the system, people themselves are victims of the system, so let’s change the system. They would say, we need police reforms, we need judicial reforms, we need better civil infrastructure. One of the highest authorities of our country has recently talked of reforming the judiciary and how the long delay in resolving such cases, disposing of such cases, leads to widespread frustration with the judiciary. And then people are forced to take things in their own hands and deliver instant justice in their own crude ways. So, that’s an approach that looks at the system to fix the problem.

And then there is a third level, higher than the level of these two, that talks of culture. So, people who take this approach, this level, they…