‘Women on top’ and/or ‘economic progress’: What affects actual and reported crime against women? An analysis of socio-economic factors in India

We in this paper make an attempt to examine whether having a woman chief minister helps in reducing actual crime and increase reported crime against women. Also we examine whether economic progress affects crime against women. We find evidence that having a women chief minister has no effect on actual and reported crime against women whereas economic progress does lead to reduced crime against women. We also look at other socio-economic factors and find that increased female labour force participation, urbanization and policing increases reporting of crime whereas increased female literacy doesn’t necessarily lead to increased reporting of crime against women