Crime indexes are widely used as barometers of the social health of a nation. Properly constructed, they should indicate the social harm caused by criminal acts. The major limitation of official crime indexes is that they are typically unweighted indexes that do not show the seriousness of the constituent categories of offenses. Since the punishment prescribed in the Indian Penal Code and other statutes for the various offenses is directly related to the seriousness of the offenses, the proposed crime-measurement methodology uses the prison terms specified for the various categories of offenses to construct a weighted crime index. An empirical illustration of the methodology is provided by constructing a "crime against women" index composed of five categories of crimes against women; the discussion shows that the weighted index is a more meaningful and accurate indicator of crime trends. The analysis encompasses an examination of the relationship between the weighted crime index and policing variables, so as to gain useful insights on the efficacy of crime-prevention strategies. 3 tables, 4 notes, and 5 references