Urbanization and Caste-Based Crime in India: A State-Level Panel Study of Institutional and Developmental Determinants

Caste-based violence against Scheduled Castes (SCs) in India persists despiteconstitutional protections and over three decades of the Prevention of Atrocities Act. Whileurbanization is frequently invoked as a driver of social progress; its relationship with SCCrime rates remain theoretically contested and empirically underexamined. This studyinvestigates the Structural correlates of reported SC rates using a balanced panel Of25 Indian states from 2011 to 2022, comprising 300 state-year observations. Employing apooled OLS regression with HC3-robust standard errors, supplemented by a fixed-effectsdiagnostic, the study examines urbanization alongside literacy, per capita income, policedeployment, and SC population share as predictors of log-transform ed SC crime rates,Urbanization shows no statistically significant independent association with SC crimerates once socioeconomic and institutional controls are introduced. suggesting its erectsare mediated through broader developmental variables. Literacy and police deploymentare the strongest negative predictors; per capita income is positively associated, likelyreflecting formal registration capacity rather than increased victimization. The fixed-erects specification reveals that within-state year-on-year variation in predictors explainslittle of the within-state movement in crime rates, indicating that caste-based violence isshaped by structural conditions operating across generational rather than annualtimescales, targeted policy reform as opposed to urbanization or economicGrowth alone is therefore essential for durable reductions in SC atrocities.