PUBLIC OUTRAGE AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE: LESSONS FROM THE JESSICA LAL CASE

Brendan O'Flaherty and Rajiv Sethi ()
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Brendan O'Flaherty: Department of Economics, Columbia University, USA

Chapter 7 in New and Enduring Themes in Development Economics, 2009, pp 145-164 from World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.

Abstract: AbstractWitness tampering and public outrage have combined to affect judicial outcomes in a series of high-profile criminal cases in India. We study how these phenomena operate together in a country with extremes of wealth and poverty, but with functioning judicial and political systems. Bribes and threats are intricately linked in the strategic interaction between offenders and witnesses. Not only do bribes provide a direct incentive that can suppress testimony, they also signal a greater likelihood of retaliation and hence serve as implicit threats to witnesses. The possibility of public outrage turns out to be an effective constraint on witness tampering. In many situations, greater media effectiveness can improve the administration of justice, even when more obvious improvements in judicial effectiveness cannot.

Keywords: Development Economics; Happiness; Well-Being; Political Economy; Economic of Labour; Agricultural Economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
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