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29 Emory Int'l L. Rev. 327 (2014-2015)
The Impact of Situational Factors on Forum Choice and Criminal Justice System Development in Bangladesh

handle is hein.journals/emint29 and id is 340 raw text is: THE IMPACT OF SITUATIONAL FACTORS ON FORUM CHOICE AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT IN BANGLADESH Kristina Lugo* Elizabeth A.M Searingt ABSTRACT Using a survey by the World Bank's Justice and Development Initiative, Bangladesh Citizen's Experiences of the Legal System 2009, this paper examines whether crime victims' choice of dispute resolution forum is constrained more by socialfactors, such as socioeconomic status, or by event- specific factors, such as direct economic loss caused by the crime itself In Bangladesh's pluralist legal environment of competing traditional and state venues, neoinstitutionalist-inspired development strategies may overlook important factors in play and strategies that could improve access to justice for those most hurt by crime. This study finds that crime victims who suffer greater economic harm resulting directly from the crime, as well as victims of violent crime, tend to engage with the state criminal justice system versus the traditional system alone. After undertaking a subsequent historical comparison in order to identify possible omitted structural variables, this result highlights the need to look at crime-event-specific factors, and not just social-level problems, when designing rule-of-law programs in developing countries. INTRODUCTION In countries with pluralistic legal systems where state, NGO-sponsored, and international financial institution (IFI)-sponsored reformist criminal justice systems compete with local, traditional mechanisms, the right choice of venue for redress is not necessarily clear to the average crime victim. Further, many IFIs and international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) that implement needed justice reforms do not necessarily apply culturally-appropriate . Kristina Lugo is a PhD candidate in Justice, Law & Criminology at American University. Her primary research areas are human trafficking, transnational organized crime, and comparative criminal justice system development. .. Elizabeth Searing is a doctoral candidate in Public Policy at Georgia State University with a primary concentration in nonprofit studies and secondary foci in social entrepreneurship and program evaluation.

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