The nature and magnitude of crime in India is examined at a critical phase in the development of the country's political institutions. This includes a brief history of crime from earliest times, the evolution of criminal law, and the intractable conceptual dilemmas. A critique of official criminal statistics is also provided, since this constitutes the empirical data of the study. Despite the acknowledged lack of integrity of official statistics, they are the basis on which the economic implications of the study have been determined. National crime trends are projected, and a wide range of related matters is considered, including general trends, female criminality, and juvenile delinquency. Regional variations in crime are analyzed with reference to select socioeconomic indicators across the States. The analysis is further extended across the districts in one State -- Rajasthan. One chapter is devoted exclusively to interurban and intraurban patterns of crime in relation to three metropolitan cities and a medium-sized city. Finally, recent economic models of crime and punishment are examined in the Indian context, and implications of the findings are briefly discussed. It is concluded that the bulk of crime in India has economic roots, since it is estimated that about 90 percent of crime is motivated by the desire for monetary gain. Lower-class crime is believed to correlate with unemployment; however, economic development is not viewed as a panacea for the ills of deviant behavior, since the middle and upper classes have acquisitive desires that exceed their survival needs. Appendixes contain tabular data, and subject and author indexes are provided.