Understanding the rise of sexual violence in India

Author: Vahida Nainar1
View author details View Less
  • 1 Tata Institute of Social Sciences, , India
Article Category:
Research Article
Copyright:
© Centre for Gender and Violence Research University of Bristol 2022
Online Publication Date:
01 Feb 2022
Pages:
9–27
Publisher:
Policy Press
Volume/Issue:
Volume 6: Issue 1
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1332/239868021X16327330840617
Restricted access
Get eTOC alerts
Rights and permissions Cite this article
Add to cart (GBP  £25.00)

There is a sharp rise in sexual violence against women and girls over the last decade in India. The 2015–2017 National Crimes Records Bureau (NCRB) data suggest that the rise in sexual violence in different states in India ranges between 30–95 per cent. Though there are several literatures to understand and explain the phenomenon of sexual violence, there are dimensions of sexual violence that remain unexplored leading to substantive knowledge gaps. The article attempts to examine the knowledge gaps and understand the phenomenon of rise in sexual violence. It discusses relevance of patriarchal dominance theory and social disintegration theory to explain the phenomenon. The article concludes that patriarchal dominance theory is the basis for understanding the deep-rooted causes of gender violence as exemplified by rising instances of sexual violence. However, the cultural spillover concept, where the general acquiescence to public violence as illustrated in the high number of elected officials with criminal records, or a corporate decision to make free data accessible to 90 per cent of India’s population by 2017 shows discernable links with the rise in sexual violence.

  • Adamec, C.S. and Adamec, R.E. (1981) Aggression by men against women: adaption or aberration, International Journal of Women’s Studies, 5: 1–21.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Anderson, P., Struckman-Johnson, C. and Smeaton, G.L. (2020) Generation by gender differences in use of sexual aggression: a replication of the millennial shift, Journal of Sex Research, Published online: 12 Mar 2020. doi: 10.1080/00224499.2020.1733457

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • ARD Analysis (2019) Lok Sabha elections 2019: analysis of criminal background, financial, education, gender and other details of winners, pp 6&11 https://adrindia.org/download/file/fid/7994.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Ashraf, A. (2016) A dark trade: rape videos for sale in India, https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/10/dark-trade-rape-videos-sale-india-161023124250022.html.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Bandyopadhyay, S. (2018) A closer look at statistics on sexual violence in India, https://thewire.in/society/a-closer-look-at-statistics-on-sexual-violence-in-india.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Baron, L. and Straus, M.A. (1987) Four theories of rape: a macrosociological analysis, Social Problems, 34(5): 467–89. doi: 10.2307/800542

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Barry, K. (1979) Female Sexual Slavery, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

  • Bartky, S. (1982) Narcissism, femininity and alienation, Social Theory and Practice, 8(1982): 130. doi: 10.5840/soctheorpract19828212

  • Basile, K.C., Smith, S.G., Breiding, M.J., Black, M.C. and Mahendra, R. (2014) Sexual Violence Surveillance: Uniform Definitions and Recommended Data Elements, Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control Atlanta.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Basu, S., Zuo, X., Lou, C., Acharya, R. and Lundgren, R. (2017) Learning to be gendered: gender socialization in early adolescence among Urban poor in Delhi, India, and Shanghai, China, Journal of Adolescent Health, 61(2017): S24e–S29. doi: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2017.03.012

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Blau, J.R. and Blau, P.M. (1982) The cost of inequality: metropolitan structure and violent crime, American Sociological Review, 47(1): 114–28. doi: 10.2307/2095046

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Brownmiller, S. (1975) Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape, New York: Simon and Schuster.

  • Budhwar, Y. (2019) Rajasthan: one arrested for rape and murder of 6-year-old girl in Tonk, https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/jaipur/rajasthan-one-arrested-for-rape-and-murder-of-6-year-old-girl-in-tonk/articleshow/72337809.cms.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Bullough, V. (1991) Jus primae noctis or droit du seigneur, The Journal of Sex Research, 28(1): 163–66. doi: 10.1080/00224499109551602

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Burgess-Jackson, K. (1995a) Rape and persuasive definition, Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 25(3): 415–54. doi: 10.1080/00455091.1995.10717422

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Burgess-Jackson, K. (1995b) On the coerciveness of sexist socialization, Public Affairs Quarterly, 9(1995): 15–27.

  • Busch, N.B. and Valentine, D. (2000) Empowerment practice: a focus on battered women, Affilia, 15(1): 82–95. doi: 10.1177/08861090022093840

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Card, C. (1991) Rape as a terrorist institution, in R.G. Frey and C.W. Morris (eds) Violence, Terrorism, and Justice, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp 296–319.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Chowdhury, A. and Patnaik, M.M. (2013) Understanding Indian family life: the gender perspectives, International Journal of Multidisciplinary Management Studies (EIJMMS), 3(7): 58–67.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Clark, L. and Lewis, D. (1977) Rape: The Price of Coercive Sexuality, Toronto: The Women’s Press.

  • Das, R. (2007) Encountering Hindutva, interrogating religious nationalism and (en)gendering a Hindu patriarchy in India’s nuclear policies: ordering, bordering and othering, International Feminist Journal of Politics, 8(3): 370–93. doi: 10.1080/14616740600792988.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Donnerstein, E. (1984) Erotica and human aggression, in R.E. Geen and E.I. Donnerstein (eds) Aggression: Theoretical and Empirical Reviews, New York: Academic Press.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Donnerstein, E., Linz, D. and Penrod, S. (1987) The Question of Pornography, New York: Free Press.

  • Doshi, V. (2017) A woman interviewed 100 convicted rapists in India. This is what she learned, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/09/11/a-woman-interviewed-100-convicted-rapists-in-india-this-is-what-she-learned/.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Dworkin, A. (1981) Pornography: Men Possessing Women, New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons.

  • Gordon, M. and Riger, S. (1991) The Female Fear: The Social Cost of Rape, Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, pp 45–6.

  • Gowen, A. (2015) The shocking things Indian judges say about rape, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/07/09/the-shocking-things-indian-judges-say-about-rape/?arc404=true.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Gupta, C. (2014) The myth of love jihad, http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/the-myth-of-love-jihad/.

  • Haldar, A. (2020) Hinduism as a Political Weapon: Gender Socialization and Disempowerment of Women in India, Master’s thesis, USF Scholarship: a digital repository, Spring, 15 May, San Francisco, CA: Gleeson Library, Geschke Center, University of San Francisco.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Haloi, N. (2016) Gender socialization and gender exclusion: an analysis, International Research Journal of Interdisciplinary & Multidisciplinary Studies, II(I): 39–45.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Hansen, T.B. (2004) The Saffron Wave in India in Hindu Nationalism and Indian Politics, New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

  • Heewon, K. (2017) Understanding Modi and minorities: The BJP led NDA government in India and religious minorities, India Review, 16(4): 357–76, doi: 10.1080/14736489.2017.1378482.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Hindustan Times (2015) Ostensibly to protect the holy cow and prevent its consumption as food by ‘other’ identities, http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/president-nod-to-blanket-ban-on-cow-slaughter-in-maharashtra/article1-1322474.aspx.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Jaffrelot, C. and Hansen, T.B. (2004) The BJP and the Compulsions of Politics in India in Hindu Nationalism and Indian Politics, New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Jharkhand (2019) Law student allegedly abducted and raped in Ranchi, 12 arrested, https://scroll.in/latest/945258/jharkhand-law-student-allegedly-abducted-and-raped-in-ranchi-12-arrested%20.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Kelly, L. (1988) Surviving Sexual Violence, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

  • Kutchinsky, B. (1986) Paper presented at the International Congress on Rape, Tel Aviv, Israel, April 7–11

  • Lederer, L. (1980) Take Back the Night: Women on Pornography, New York: William Morrow.

  • MacKinnon, C.A. (1982) Feminism, Marxism, method and the state: an agenda for theory, Signs, 7(3): 515–44. doi: 10.1086/493898

  • MacKinnon, C.A. (1984) Not a moral issue, Yale Law and Policy Review, 2(2): 321–45.

  • MacKinnon, C.A. (1989) Toward a Feminist Theory of the State, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

  • Malamuth, N.M. and Donnerstein, E. (1983) The effects of aggressive-pornographic mass media stimuli, in L. Berkowitz (ed) Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, New York: Academic Press.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • May, L. and Strikwerda, R. (1994) Men in groups: collective responsibility for rape, Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy, 9(1994): 134–51. doi: 10.1111/j.1527-2001.1994.tb00437.x

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • McDougal, G.J. (1998) Contemporary Forms of Slavery: Systematic Rape, Sexual Slavery, and Slavery-like Practices during Armed Conflict, Final Report Submitted to the UN General Assembly, in UN Doc E/CN.4/Sub.2/1998/13, Geneva: Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Medea, A. and Thompson, K. (1974) Against Rape, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

  • Mishra, S., Behera, D.K., and Babu, B.V. (2012) Socialisation and gender bias at the household level among school-attending girls in a tribal community of the Kalahandi district of Eastern India, Anthropological Notebooks, 18(2): 45–53.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Mitter, S. (2018) India attempts to curb porn – is it work and what it means for Reliance Jio and other telcos, https://yourstory.com/2018/11/india-bans-porn-working-means-reliance-jio-telcos?utm_pageloadtype=scroll.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Morgan, R. (1980) Theory and practice: pornography and rape, in L. Lederer (ed) Take Back the Night: Women on Pornography, New York: William Morrow.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Naqvi, H. (2019) In 11 months, Unnao records 51 rape cases, https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/in-11-months-unnao-records-51-rape-cases/story-o0dRLqiWKLc5SIlk3grPYM.html.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • NCRB (National Crimes Records Bureau) (2015, 2016, 2017) New Delhi: National Crime Records Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India.

  • Pandey, A. and Sengar, M. (2019) Expelled BJP MLA Kuldeep Sengar convicted in unnao rape case, https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/unnao-rape-case-former-bjp-mla-kuldeep-singh-sengar-convicted-by-delhi-court-2149640?pfrom=home-topscroll.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Patel, V. (2014) Campaign against rape by women’s movement in India, Deportate, Esuli, Profughe: Rivista Telematica di Studi Sulla Memoria Femminile, 24: 36–47DEP n. 24/.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Patel, V. (2019) Socialist Feminists in the Women’s Movement in India: Debates, Experiences and Trajectories, Delhi: Centre for Women’s Development Studies.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Porter, R. (1986) Rape – does it have a historical meaning?, in S. Tomaselli and R. Porter (eds) Rape: An Historical and Cultural Enquiry, Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Prosecutor v. Akayesu (1998) Case No. ICTR-96-4-T, International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

  • Prosecutor v. Furundžija (1998) Judgment, Case No.: IT-95-17/1-T, International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.

  • Raj, A. and McDougal, L. (2014) Sexual violence and rape in India, The Lancet, 383 (9920): 865. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(14)60435-9

  • Ratterman, D. (1982) Pornography: the spectrum of harm, Aegis, (Autumn): 42–52.

  • Riger, S. and Margaret, T.G. (1981) The fear of rape: a study in social control, Journal of Social Issues, 37(4): 71–92. doi: 10.1111/j.1540-4560.1981.tb01071.x

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Russell, D.E.H. (1978) On pornography, Chrysalis Magazine, (Spring): 11–15.

  • Schwendinger, J. and Schwendinger, H. (1983) Rape and Inequality, Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.

  • Sharma, A. (2020) On the difference between Hinduism and Hindutva, Education about Asia, 25(1): 43–47.

  • Sharma, S. (2019) As outrage mounts over rape in India, victim set ablaze on way to court, https://in.reuters.com/article/india-rape/as-outrage-mounts-over-rape-in-india-victim-set-ablaze-on-way-to-court-idINKBN1Y916J.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Shaw, C.R. and McKay, H.D. (1942) Juvenile Delinquency and Urban Areas, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

  • Shingal, A. (2015) The Devadasi system: temple prostitution in India, UCLA Women’s Law Journal, 22(1): 107–123.

  • Singh, N. and Butalia, U. (2012) Challenging impunity on sexual violence in South Asia beginning a discussion, Economic & Political Weekly, 14 July, XLVIL(28): 58–63.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Smith, M.D. and Bennett, N. (1985) Poverty, inequality, and theories of forcible rape, Crime and Delinquency, 31(2): 295–305. doi: 10.1177/0011128785031002008

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Szumski, F. and Kasparek, K. (2020) Encountering an exhibitionist: the female victim’s perspective, Journal of Sex Research, 57(5): 610–23, doi: 10.1080/00224499.2019.1669523.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Talwar, G. (2018) Accused boys watched porn before raping student in Dehradun, https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/dehradun/accused-boys-watched-porn-before-raping-student-in-dehradun-school-police/articleshow/65891584.cms.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Telangana (2019) Telangana doctor rape-murder: chilling developments that sent shockwaves across country, https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/telangana-doctor-rape-murder-chilling-developments-that-sent-shockwaves-across-country-1623810-2019-11-29.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Tiryakian, E.A. (1981) Sexual anomie, social structure, societal change, Social Forces, 59(4): 1025–53.

  • Walby, S., Towers, J., Francis, B., Balderston, S., Corradi, C., Heiskanen, M., Helweg-Larsen, K., Mergaert, L., Olive, P., Palmer, E., Stöckl, H. and Strid, S. (2017) Different forms of violence, in S. Walby, J. Towers, S. Balderston, C. Corradi, B. Francis, M. Heiskanen, K. Helweg-Larsen, L. Mergaert, P. Olive, E. Palmer, H. Stöckl and S. Strid (eds) The Concept and Measurement of Violence Against Women and Men, Bristol: Bristol University Press.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • WHO (World Health Organisation) (2002) Sexual violence. World Report on Violence and Health, Chapter 6, pp. 149–81, https://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/violence/global_campaign/en/chap6.pdf?ua=1.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Zaccagnino, J.M. (2017) Mainstreaming gender: the influence of women’s networks on prosecuting sexual violence at the international criminal court, Senior Projects, Spring 2017, 216, https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/senproj_s2017/216.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Zavos, J. (2004) The Emergence of Hindu Nationalism in India in Hindu Nationalism and Indian Politics, New Delhi: Oxford University Press. doi:

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
Vahida Nainar1
  • 1 Tata Institute of Social Sciences, , India

vahida.nainar@gmail.com

Content Metrics

May 2022 onwards Past Year Past 30 Days
Abstract Views 1 1 0
Full Text Views 59 59 59
PDF Downloads 45 45 45

Altmetrics

Dimensions