Violence against Women in India

Women in India constitute nearly half of its population of over a billion people, and this book is a rigorous social scientific examination of the issue of violence against women in India. It draws from the latest criminological research on the nature and extent of such violence; discusses cultural myths and practices that underlie the problem; and examines policies and programs that respond to it. This collection will advance research, justice, and social action to tackle this heartbreaking problem. The chapters in this book wereoriginally published as a special issue of the International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice.

Preface N. Prabha Unnithan and Mahesh K. Nalla 1. Exploring the trend of violence against women in India Arvind Verma, Hanif Qureshi and Jee Yearn Kim 2. Towards identifying and ranking selected types of violence against women in North India Raghu N. Singh, David Hurley and Divyajyoti Singh 3. Extreme cases and the criminal justice system: responses to a traumatic sexual assault in India Sneha Kadyan and N. Prabha Unnithan 4. Perpetuating myths of women as false complainants in rape cases in India: culture V. The law Zoe Brereton 5. Perceptions of gender-based violence around public toilets in Mumbai slums Jyoti Belur, Priti Parikh, Nayreen Daruwalla, Rukaiya Joshi and Rini Fernandes 6. Community effects on women’s help-seeking behaviour for intimate partner violence in India: gender disparity, feminist theory, and empowerment Brittany E. Hayes and Cortney A. Franklin 7. Sexual violence perpetrated against women in India: the role of forensic evidence Michelle D. Miranda and Marie-Helen Maras

N. Prabha Unnithan is a Professor in the Department of Sociology at Colorado State University, Fort Collins,USA. Mahesh K. Nalla is Professor in the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University, East Lansing,USA.