INVESTIGATING FACTORS RELEVANT FOR INFLUENCING REPORTING OF RAPE CRIME IN INDIA - AN EMPIRICAL APPROACH

Abstract

Following the inhuman gang rape and subsequent death of a 23- year-old girl in Delhi (December 16, 2012), the GOI has passed the Anti-Rape Act, 2013. The increased definitional scope of rape crimes, harsher punishments, raising the age of consent and fast-tracking of trial, were among the major changes introduced by the reform. While evaluating the performance of the act on the rape declaration, at the all-India level and across different states, the results show that the effect of the reform is higher in states with higher declared rape rates before the reforms. However, states with high pre-2013 declared rape rates are also likely to be the states with high real rape rates. Alternatively, it is possible that states with high pre-2013 declared rape rates were more “progressive" for victims to report to the police. Given this, my aim is to examine the validity of these (or other) competing conjectures.