Sexual Violence in India (HR III C-Thesis)

Abstract: This study is about gender based sexual violence in India. Rape is prevalent in many parts of the world but the reason to select India is because rape is the fastest growing crime in the country.The purpose of this study was to investigate why the police system in India respond to rape cases inconsistently. In India the extreme expression of stratification in the society was introduced by the religion and gender, class and caste the salient social identities were used for categorizing the people in a hierarchical social structure. In this study in order to find the reasons for the lack of consistency by the police the intersectional identities gender, class and caste are used because of the significance it has in the Indian society. The method applied in this study is the case study approach using multiple cases; three different cases of rape committed by and against adults in India are used to understand real life phenomena.The results revealed that gender, class and caste, the major components of the overlapping power systems of the Indian society intersect in the sexist society resulting in inconsistent police response influenced by the societal patriarchal mindset. The police response varies according to the position the perpetrators hold in the power structures.