In this blogpost, Renuka Sane and Neha Sinha discuss why we need to look beyond statistics on pendency and disposal of cases, and instead measure the other steps along the way from crime to conviction. 

"Our ultimate objective, however, is to create deterrence against crime. The criminal justice system is the interlocking institutional infrastructure of laws, police, courts, public prosecutors and prisons. We must, therefore, look at all delays from the date of the crime to the date of the conviction. Judicial delays are one part of this. Delays at the police are an equally important problem...

After a crime takes place, the very ability to conduct an investigation and identify the criminal degrades with time. Witnesses forget, evidence is lost. Delays in investigation drive up the probability of a failed investigation. The urgency of reducing delays here is, in some sense, even greater than the problem of delays at courts."