Avis de recrutement : J-PAL South Asia recrute un(e) Associé(e) de recherche – Projet de la police de Madhya Pradesh (mise à l’échelle), Inde.

Avis de recrutement : J-PAL South Asia recrute un(e) Associé(e) de recherche – Projet de la police de Madhya Pradesh (mise à l’échelle), Inde.

Job Description

Building a responsive police force is a major challenge facing India and is critical to citizen security, justice and the rule of law. This project addresses this challenge by analyzing the impact of women’s-centered police reforms in the state of Madhya Pradesh (MP). The MP Police Department instituted a reform program across the state of MP (starting in April 2021) to establish Women’s Help Desks (WHDs). The WHD program provides dedicated desks and training of officers to address crimes against women in all police stations where they are instituted. The MP Police Department is collaborating with researchers from University of Virginia and University of Oxford to study the organizational behavior of the police and assess the impact of the scaled-up WHD program. The research team has previously worked with the MP Police Department to conduct a mixed-methods study (randomized controlled trial + qualitative research) on setting up the WHDs between 2018 and 2020, promising results from which have informed the policy for scaling up the WHD program across the state.

This research project investigates whether and how institutional reforms can lead to more responsive policing for women by analyzing the impact of the WHD program. In so doing, we also seek to understand the wider organizational context of policing, drawing on the resources, routines and everyday practices of police officers. How do the organizational characteristics of the police color the implementation of the WHD program? Does the WHD program encourage more women to report cases to the police, for example, by altering how officers prioritize such cases? How does the deployment of female officers impact police behavior vis-à-vis women? Does the institution of a Women’s Help Desk have spillover effects to other areas of police activity? Does the WHD program alter citizens’ perceptions of and trust in the police? In addition, the research also seeks to understand how the scale-up program compares with the previously conducted study along the themes of intervention persistence and deepening over time, and broadening and spillovers over space.

The Research Associate will be engaged in an intensive, field-based study of the Help Desk program within a sample of (6-8) police stations. The primary aim is to trace the implementation process of the scaled-up Help Desk program over a period of several months and to analyze its impact comparatively across police stations. Using multiple field research methods, including interviews of police officers, station-level observations and focus group discussions of citizens, we will seek to gain a deeper understanding of the organizational context of policing and how this conditions the efficacy of the Women’s Help Desk program and its concurrence with the previously established Help Desks as part of the research done between 2018 and 2021.

Qualifications

• Fluency in Hindi (required; native speakers preferred);
• Proficiency in English (required);
• Social science background (B.A. or higher; in-progress degrees will be considered);
• Prior fieldwork experience (required);
• Qualitative research skills in interviewing and/or focus group discussions (highly desired);
• Willingness to travel within assigned state (required).

Note on Work Authorizations: Candidates must have work authorization to work in India. This covers citizens of India, Nepal, or Bhutan, Persons of Indian origin (PIO), and an Overseas Citizens of India (OCI).