Hate-Crime, Co-Ethnicity, and Law Enforcement: Evidence from Caste-Segregated Police Stations in India
Can ethnicity-based segregation of administrators and citizens improve justice for hate-crime? I examine caste-specific police stations in India, i.e., those staffed by and that cater solely to a minority. The goal—whereby Scheduled Caste/Tribe complainants file cases against out-groups—is to empower and bring justice to the marginalized. Using an original individual-level dataset of roughly half a million cases from 2017-2022 in a region where the institutions were expanded, I conduct difference-in-difference analyses to estimate the bodies’ impact, and draw on machine learning applied to citizen testimonies as well as ethnography. To probe final outcomes, I analyze 1.3 million judicial rulings. Marginalized groups can face hate-crime, including sexual violence perpetrated against minority women by out-groups. Creating “enclave” modes of representation in law enforcement for disadvantaged castes increases the state’s cognizance of hate-crime and complaints are, in turn, tackled by senior, co-ethnic officers. Nevertheless, enclaves or specialized police stations are not associated with substantive change for victims that follow-through with the multi- stage process of seeking perpetrator punishment. Identity-based segregation might offer some benefits for complainants at specific stages of seeking restitution, but falls short of meaningfully altering the final justice that they receive.
Date: 6 December 2024, 13:00
Venue: Manor Road Building, Manor Road OX1 3UQ
Venue Details: Seminar Room C
Speaker: Nirvikar Jassal (LSE)
Organising department: Department of Politics and International Relations (DPIR)
Part of: Politics Research Colloquium
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Members of the University only
Editors: Holly Omand, Daniel Burton, Ekaterina Rebinskaya