Secondary Victimisation of Rape Survivors in India: A Criminological Study of Police and Court Processes

Secondary victimisation, often called the “second assault,” describes the harm that survivors of sexual violence suffer not only because of the crime committed against them, but because of how institutions respond when they seek help. For many survivors, the process of approaching the police, undergoing medical examinations, and participating in court proceedings becomes another source of pain, fear, and humiliation. Insensitive questioning, repeated retelling of traumatic events, delays, disbelief, and rigid procedures frequently strip survivors of dignity and control. Unlike primary victimisation, which is inflicted by the offender, secondary victimisation is institutional in nature—it is created by systems that are meant to offer protection, justice, and care. In India, public attention to secondary victimisation increased significantly after the 2012 Delhi gang rape and murder, widely known as the Nirbhaya case. The incident shook the nation and forced a collective reckoning with the failures of the criminal justice system. It led to a series of legal reforms aimed at strengthening laws on sexual violence and making procedures more sensitive to survivors. These included amendments to criminal law in 2013 and 2018, and most recently, the replacement of the Indian Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure with the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 and the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023. These changes were presented as a decisive move towards a modern, victim-centred justice system.