What Empowers Victimized Women to Report: A New Evidence from The Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, Punjab, Pakistan

Abstract

This study aims to investigate what empowers victimized women to reach out for justice. In particular, we analyze the role of victimized women’s socio-economic circumstances, their normative and cultural beliefs and attitudes, institutional and technological access, and veracity of crime. To carry out the research, this study employs logistic modelling technique based on a sample of 873 victimized-women from the most recent Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey Punjab (MICS), 2017-18. Our findings suggest that victimized-woman’s socio-economic circumstances act as an overarching factor. Access to technology, awareness of institutional services such as cash-transfers and veracity of crime significantly affect and increase the likelihood of women to report violence. On the other hand, children dependency, wealth-status and experience of harassment and discrimination have been observed to have a receding effect on reporting similar situations to concerned authorities. Further evidence suggests that in a patriarchal society, men’s perceptions of treating woman of the household govern and affect the decision-making ability of the victimized-woman to desist and report persecution, regardless of her own attitude towards such violence. The evidence highlights the antecedents of reporting women-victimization. It brings out both inhibiting and enabling factors pertaining to the decision-making ability of an affected woman and empowering her to access institutional mechanism for her life-safety, as well as the need for state-intervention. The findings of the study imply the urgent need to devise inclusive policies promoting women socio-economic empowerment, stringent laws to abjure social acceptance of victimizing women such that violent human behaviour could be institutionally regulated and perpetrator be held accountable. The need to examine the impact of qualitative attributes of victim’s trust in police and judiciary and need for a gender-sensitive criminal justice system are subjects for further academic-research.