Effects of female workforce participation on crime: An analysis from the districts of India

• Published date: 01 February 2021
• Author: Prarthna Agarwal Goel
• Date: 01 February 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2165

ACADEMIC PAPER

Effects of female workforce participation on crime: An analysis

from the districts of India

Prarthna Agarwal Goel

Department of Economics, University School

of Humanities and Social Sciences, Guru

Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, New

Delhi, India

Correspondence

Prarthna Agarwal Goel, Department of

Economics, University School of Humanities

and Social Sciences, Guru Gobind Singh

Indraprastha University, 16 C, Dwarka, New

Delhi, India.

Email: prarthnagl@gmail.com

This article assesses the impact of female workforce participation on violent and

non-violent crimes in India. Increase in female workforce should lead to greater

investment in education and labour, more specifically by men. Greater representation

of females also leads to increase in reporting of crime. These factors raise apprehen-

sion and conviction costs and should lead to fall in criminal engagements. Estimates

suggest that a percent rise in female workforce leads to 1.5% rise in non-violent

crimes contemporaneously. With a decade lag, rise in female workforce causes

reduction in violent crime by 1.1% and non-violent crime by 2.24%.

1|INTRODUCTION

During the past few decades, India has witnessed important socio-

economic changes. High rates of economic growth have led to an

increase in total workforce participation rate. According to the Census

of India, it has increased from 36% in 1981 to 39.3% in 2001 (Census

of India, Ministry of Home Affairs, GOI). Female workforce participa-

tion though has increased marginally from 19.8% in 1981 to 25.5% in

2001, the gender gap has however remained persistent through these

decades. Male workforce participation has remained relatively higher

at 53.6 and 51.9% in 1981 and 2001, respectively. Amongst other

social and economic outcomes of gender gap in the labour market,

these trends in workforce have strong effects on incidences of crime.

On one hand, narrowing of this gap would lead to greater competition

in labour market and higher investment in education and labour,

which act as strong deterrents of crime. On the other hand, as more

females join the labour market, it raises the risk of exposure to crime

and victimisation rate. The net effect of rise in female workforce on

crime is hence ambiguous. For India, with evident trends on poor

female workforce rate, statistics from areport an increase of 1.1% in

total cognisable crimes under IPC (Indian Penal Code) and 7.39% rise

in murder rates between 1961 and 2001.

In this article, we estimate the effect of female workforce partici-

pation on violent and non-violent crimes for the districts of India from

1961 to 2001.

1

Female workforce participation is found to be closely

associated with various socio-economic outcomes such as increase in

education, labour market effects such as changes in equilibrium wage

and increased competition (Lundholm & Ohlsson, 1998). It may also

alter equilibrium levels of marital transfers in the marriage market, as

well as alter the role of females in intra-household decision making

(Anderson, 2004). These changes due to increased female workforce

alter the relative utility between legal and illegal engagements and the

incentive to commit crime.

Female workforce participation should affect crime due to at least

four reasons. First, as more females enter the labour force it increases

competition in the labour market. If men and women compete for the

same job, this demands higher investment in education and skills

amongst men to gain competitiveness in the labour market

(Linsley, 2005). Increase in the levels of human capital investment is

shown to be a strong deterrent of crime which should lead to a fall in

crime incidences.

Second, if greater female workforce participation empowers

women, they are more likely to report crime (Iyer, Mani, Mishra, &

Topalova, 2011). Increased reporting of crime would increase the

probability of apprehension and conviction. This would raise the

opportunity cost of criminal engagements and should reduce the

crime rates.

Third, increased female workforce participation may provide

females with greater bargaining in the marriage market. In an Indian

institutional set up with prevalence of dowry

2

, increased female work-

force participation would lead men to invest in their human capital

and labour market in order to attract high quality bride and receive

larger dowry payments (Anderson, 2007; Dalmia, 2004). The greater

investment in human capital should reduce crime.

Fourth, we can also expect increased female workforce participa-

tion to have long run effects on crime if it has social externality

Received: 30 January 2020 Revised: 17 March 2020 Accepted: 25 April 2020

DOI: 10.1002/pa.2165

J Public Affairs. 2021;21:e2165. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 1of11

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2165