Under Pressure

Abstract

Chapter 6 takes the reader into the halls of the Indian criminal justice system and into the lives of the police, protection officers, and court personnel who staff its offices. Law enforcement personnel faced administrative constraints on their abilities to process cases and mounting organized pressure around domestic violence allegations. These conditions undermined their ability to exercise discretion, making it difficult for them to reject women they did not like and pick “good” victims they wished to protect. And it bred a sense of victimization, the notion that they were too overburdened and besieged to do their jobs. The main outcome was thus twofold: law enforcement feared alienating organized women and articulated a discourse of disempowerment that rationalized poor performance.