Crimes Against Women in India: A District-Level Analysis (1991–2011)

Abstract

Crimes against women (CAW) in India have been rising despite faster economic growth, higher education attainment, and increasing numbers of women in the economic sphere. This article explores the reasons for the incidence of reported CAW in India. We study five CAW (rape, kidnapping, cruelty, dowry deaths, and molestation), across 35 states and union territories, 594 districts, over three decades (1991–2011). We use panel fixed-effects regression models to explain crime. Our results confirm the importance of female literacy rates, female paid workforce participation, and female–male ratio in understanding crime. We find that these commonly-used socioeconomic variables have nonlinear effects on CAW. Our findings improve upon earlier results that have not explored either spatial distribution or nonlinearity in India. These findings could have significant implications for the policies aiming to reduce CAW.

Does development deter crime against women? Panel evidence from India

“…Hackett (2011), using the weights from factor analysis, constructed three development indicators like gender development, human development and urban development and estimated the impact of these development indicators dowry deaths and cruelty of husbands. Some recent studies in the context of India by Basu-Roy and Ghose-Dastidar (2018) and Lolayekar et al (2020) and some others also looked at the determinants of crimes against women. While Basu-Roy and Ghose-Dastidar ( 2018) is restricted to only rape cases, Lolayekar et al (2020) used the district-level panel data on various crimes against women.…”

“…Some recent studies in the context of India by Basu-Roy and Ghose-Dastidar (2018) and Lolayekar et al (2020) and some others also looked at the determinants of crimes against women. While Basu-Roy and Ghose-Dastidar ( 2018) is restricted to only rape cases, Lolayekar et al (2020) used the district-level panel data on various crimes against women. However, this present study differs from the entire literature on several grounds.…”

Domestic violence in Indian women: lessons from nearly 20 years of surveillance

“…A significant focus of domestic violence against women in India has been on dowry-related harassment. Dowry is the transfer of goods, money and/or property from the bride's family to the groom or his family at the time of marriage [13], initially meant to provide funds to women who were unable to inherit family property [14]. Dowry is very prevalent in India [15], and it has propagated domestic violence as means to extract money or property from the bride and her family [13,16].…”

“…It is plausible that this rate is higher in the middle-SDI states because material wealth is highly prized among the Indian middle class, and dowry is seen as an easy path to greater wealth and social status [12]. A higher dowry demand, and a greater dissatisfaction from inability to meet these demands could possibly result in more domestic violence in these states [12,42,43]. Another possible factor in these states could be that the increasing female literacy in these states may be perceived as a threat to the prevalent power structures, prompting violence against women as a means to reinstate control [12,[44][45][46][47].…”

“…[48] Furthermore, qualitative research has shown that the families of dowry death cases deter from accusing the husband or his family due to fear of issues with upbringing of the children of their daughter [47]. Also dowry deaths or related suicide deaths are less likely to be reported by the natal family, who fear social stigma and negative impact on marriages of their other daughters [42,49]. In this context, it is not easy to interpret the decreased number of cases of dowry deaths in India as actual fewer dowry deaths, for which more evidence is needed.…”