Gender, Crime and Policing Experiments
Paper Session
Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM (CST)
- Chair: Sofia Amaral, ifo Institute and Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
Policing in Patriarchy: An Experimental Evaluation of Reforms To Improve Police Responsiveness to Women in India
Abstract
Gender-targeted police reforms are frequently proposed to tackle the global problem of rising yet under-reported gender-based violence (GBV) – but with mixed and often disappointing results. We explore this issue in India, a country with alarming rates of GBV and limited police capacity, by studying the impact of Women’s Help Desks (WHDs): dedicated spaces for women in local police stations, staffed by trained officers. Drawing on the largest randomized controlled trial of police reform to date (180 police stations serving 23.4 million people), we find that officers in stations with WHDs are more likely to register cases of GBV, particularly where female officers run the desks. This suggests that, even in resource-constrained and patriarchal environments, police responsiveness can be improved by focusing and mainstreaming attention to women’s cases and by greater gender representation within the police.Mano Dura: An Experimental Evaluation of Military Policing in Cali, Colombia
Abstract
Governments across the developing world rely on their armed forces for domestic policing operations. Advocates of these “mano dura” (iron fist) policies view them as necessary to control crime, while detractors claim they undermine human rights. We experimentally evaluate a military policing intervention in Cali, Colombia, the country’s third largest city and among its most violent. The intervention involved recurring, intensive military patrols targeting crime hot spots, randomly assigned at the city block level. Using administrative crime and human rights data, surveys, a conjoint survey experiment, a costly behavioral measure, qualitative interviews, and firsthand observations from civilian monitors, we find some suggestive evidence that military policing reduces crime, but only on days and times when soldiers are physically present on the streets. Despite these temporally circumscribed effects, we find strong evidence of increased demand for more aggressive military involvement in policing and other aspects of governance, including increased support for military coups. We also find some suggestive evidence of increased human rights abuses committed by police officers in particular. Finally, we observe a large, significant, and lasting increase in citizens’ reports of witnessing crime and a correspondingly large, significant, and lasting increase in their willingness to report crimes to the authorities. We interpret this as evidence of increased vigilance by citizens and increased co-production of security not just between the military and the police, but between civilians and the authorities as well.Tackling Sexual Harassment: Experimental Evidence from India
Abstract
Sexual harassment imposes substantial economic costs on the victims, yet there is limited evidence on how to effectively deter it. I present experimental evidence on the effects of sexual harassment awareness training for college students in New Delhi, using a randomized controlled trial. I find that sexual harassment awareness training for men reduces sexual harassment reported by women in their peer groups by 0.06 standard deviations. However, the training also reduces inter-personal relationships between men and women. I find that this is driven by women's choices, using a lab-in-the-field experiment in which women prefer to cooperate with women rather than men on an experimental task. Using a theoretical framework of signaling, I show that this is consistent with some men undertaking “good'' behaviors even though they would prefer to harass women, to avoid disapproval from their peers. Empirically, I find that there is an increase in men's perception of peer disapproval against sexual harassment and no change in their intrinsic attitudes towards it, consistent with the theoretical predictions. I cannot reject a null effect on sexual harassment and opposite-sex relationships of a similar intervention that was delivered exclusively to women in a separate college. Thus, this paper shows that it is possible to engage men for women's empowerment.Discussant(s)
Daniel Keniston
,
Louisiana State University
Jacob Shapiro
,
Princeton University
Matthew Ross
,
Northeastern University
Sarah Khan
,
Yale University
JEL Classifications
- D9 - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics
- J0 - General