Gender, Crime and Punishment: Evidence from Women Police Stations in India

Sofia Amaral (), Sonia Bhalotra and Nishith Prakash
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Sofia Amaral: ifo Institute and CESifo

No dp-309, Boston University - Department of Economics - The Institute for Economic Development Working Papers Series from Boston University - Department of Economics

Abstract: We study the impact of an innovative policy intervention in India that led to a rapid expansion in ‘all women police stations’ across cities in India on reported crime against women and deterrence. Using an identification strategy that exploits the staggered implementation of women police stations across cities and nationally representative data on various measures of crime and deterrence, we find that the opening of police stations increased reported crime against women by 22 percent. This is due to increases in reports of female kidnappings and domestic violence. In contrast, reports of genderspecific mortality, self-reported intimate-partner violence and other non-gender specific crimes remain unchanged. We also show that victims move away from reporting crimes in general stations and that self-reported use of support services increased in affected areas. The implementation of women police stations also led to marginal improvements in measures of police deterrence such as arrest rates.

Keywords: Women police station; Crime against women; Women in policing; India; Pro-active behaviour (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 63 pages
Date: 2019-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev, nep-gen and nep-law
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Gender, Crime and Punishment: Evidence from Women Police Stations in India (2021)
Working Paper: Gender, Crime and Punishment: Evidence from Women Police Stations in India (2021)
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