In this paper, the authors examine the data collected from 80 million legal cases that were recorded in Indian criminal courts between from the year 2010 to 2018. The paper focuses on the dimensions of gender and religion- in India’s lower courts. These two identity factors are unequally represented in the judicial system, as has been widely discussed in several reports and researches. More specifically, the paper seeks to understand two questions-
(a) whether unequal representation in the courts directly results in differential judicial outcomes for women and the Muslim community
(b) whether outcomes differed when cases were chaired upon by judges who match the gender and religion of the criminal defendants.
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Authors: Elliott Ash, Sam Asher, Aditi Bhowmick, L Daniel Chen, Tanaya Devi, Christoph Goessmann Paul Novosad, Bilal Siddiqui