Honour crimes can also include the violent disfiguration of a woman, most often of her face. This is sometimes done by throwing acid, boiling oil or water at the woman. Such crimes occur for reasons as varied as family feuds, land disputes, refusal of sex, refusal of a romantic relationship, inability to meet dowry demands, marital disputes, rejection of a marriage proposal, political enmity and so on. Besides the immense physical pain of acid attacks, the victims also suffer from a lifetime of stigmatization, resulting in loss of self-esteem and an inability to study or work, living in shame, hiding the disfigurement with a veil or retreating into social isolation. However, there can be no excuse to sanction violence or murder, whatever the cause. The issue has deep rooted socio-economic and cultural dimensions but the police have an important role to play. Their response should be quick and un prejudiced, taking the sensitivity of the situation into consideration and with an intention to provide timely and proper protection to those seeking it. H. Review The state has a responsibility to protect the victims of crime against women.25 The fact however, cannot be denied that a larger number of violence against women cases, suicides due to neglect and even dowry deaths, rape and kidnapping go unregistered. At other times they are badly investigated and consequently fall in court.26 The policemen need to take such cases seriously and must do the needful in all the cases. They must be sympathetic to women victims and give due respect to their privacy. They must not shrug off responsibility by holding the woman responsible for her situation or labelling it as a personal matter of the complainant. The senior officers again play a decisive role in such matters. There have been instances wherein dowry deaths have been affirmed as suicides by the lower ranks, resulting in extreme injustice for the dead and her family. Apart from taking stern action against the culprits, the senior cadre must take action against the policemen who fail to take timely and appropriate steps in such matters either because of workload, the crime statistics, connection or the money factor. In many cases, victims are not even aware 25 http://www.unodc.org/documents/justice-and-prison-reform 26 The Police are not protecting women in the way they should –Rustamji K F. Crime Against Women, OC Sharma, Saujanya Books, 1994 Manual on Human Rights for Police Officers 43