Chennai, Sep 9 (IANS): Increase in crime rate will result in lower investment and new employment opportunities may not be a water tight case, the State Bank of India's (SBI) research team said in a report.

Kerala is the only state where low economic growth coincides with high crime prevalence, the report said.

In their latest study analysing the latest National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report state wise, the SBI research team said: "...the connection between economic development and crime is not the same everywhere."

"Overall, there is indeed a negative correlation between crime rate and GSDP (gross state domestic product) growth in most of the states, though there are some exceptions also (i.e. showing contradictory relationship)," the report notes.

Low crime incidence leads to higher growth in nine states (out of 21 states) while in seven states low crime and low growth is positively connected.

"Kerala is the only state in our analysis where low economic growth coincides with high crime prevalence," the report said.

As regards the crime rate and growth in number of new project announcements in FY22 compared to FY21 shows a negative correlation of 0.36, as per the report.

The plot between the two shows that many states, including Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Goa, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal, lie in the most favourable quadrant where states have low crime rate and higher growth in new investment projects.

Interestingly, Gujarat and Maharashtra accounted for 28 per cent of the total number of projects announced and 33 per cent of the total investment amount announced in FY22.

On the crime rate against women and the female worker population ratio (WPR), the SBI research team said: "Seven states -- Himachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Gujarat and Uttarakhand -- lie in the most favourable place with low crime rate against women and high female WPR.

However, there are others like Odisha, Rajasthan, Telangana which not only have more than average crime rate against women but also have higher female WPR.

West Bengal accounts for maximum incidents of cruelty by husband or his relative, closely followed by UP, Rajasthan and Assam, the research report notes.

Contrary to the belief that women are safe in metro cities, the SBI report states: "While the crime against women in India increased by 15.3 per cent to 4.3 lakh in 2021, it has increased by 22.9 per cent to 43,414 in 19 metro cities. Delhi accounted for one-third of crimes committed in metros followed by Mumbai and Bengaluru. The top three metros have a share of 52 per cent in crimes against women among 19 metros."