Debiasing Law Enforcement Officers: Evidence from an Expressive Arts Intervention in India

Preventing gender-based violence (GBV) and addressing institutional service delivery of GBV in weak states is an essential component to encouraging women's mobility, entry into the labor market, human capital accumulation, and ensuring safety and access to justice for women and girls. Researchers aim to develop and generate evidence through an innovative, cost-effective, and scalable intervention that uses applied theatre, expressive arts, and behavioral science tools to address the micro foundations of male police officers' behaviors and decision-making towards GBV. To accomplish this, they partnered with the Bihar Police in the Indian state of Bihar to implement a clustered randomized control trial across 234 police stations in 10 districts. The intervention and survey tools involve a comprehensive novel toolkit to measure and change the mindset of officers when dealing with GBV and women. They will test the effect of the intervention on various behavioral outcomes, general police performance measures, and understand how these changes may translate into improvements in women's experiences with the police and livelihood.