Engendering policing: Evaluating reforms to increase women’s access to security and justice
Project Summary:
India has low rates of reporting of gender-based violence crimes, and low citizen trust in the police. This not only directly reduces women’s welfare but affects their social, educational, and employment decisions. Responses include a number of high-profile policing interventions such as women-only police stations. These interventions have never been rigorously studied.
The Development Marketplace award will enable the researchers to evaluate whether gender-targeted policing through station-level Women’s Help Desks improves the accountability and responsiveness of frontline officers toward women victims of gender-based violence. This will examine whether Women's Help Desks increase women’s perceptions of safety and police approachability; whether they have an impact on crimes being registered and action taken; and how they affect women’s social, educational, and economic decision-making and participation in the public sphere.
Project Team:
Sandip Sukhtankar, Gabrielle Kruks-Wisner, Akshay Mangla