Dr. Tasneem Deo

Dr. Tasneem Deo teaches criminal law, and criminology, and is the director of the Centre for Criminology and Victimology (a research centre at the University).

Her research focuses on the study of the criminal justice institutions of the police, courts, and prisons using socio-legal methods. She is committed to conducting field-work based assessments of the functioning of these institutions and providing solutions for the challenges they face, including drafting legislative amendments, restructuring of stakeholder incentive structures,  and capacity building. In pursuance of the same, she has worked closely with the National Commission for Women, Bureau of Police Research and Development, and State of Karnataka on aspects of police-public relations, victimisation of women in the cyber-space, and gender diversity in policing. She is currently working on a project pertaining to the decriminalisation of industrial laws under the mandate of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, State of Chhattisgarh.

Dr. Deo’s doctoral research at Yale Law School, supervised by Professor Tom Tyler, was on the impact of gender on judicial decision making studied through an analysis of data collected from criminal appeals heard at the High Court of Delhi.

Education

• Doctor of the Science of Law (J.S.D.), Yale Law School [2024]
• M.Sc. Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Oxford [2015]
• LL.M. Yale Law School [2014]
• B.A., LL.B. (Hons.), National Law School of India University [2011]

Scholarships and Awards

• Fox International Fellowship, University of Cambridge [2017-18]
• MacMillan International Dissertation Research Fellowship , Yale Law School [2016-17]
• Shri K.I. Bhatta Memorial Medal for Most Deserving Female Student, NLSIU [2011]
• Justice V.C. Ramachandra Medal in Clinical Courses (Alternate Dispute Resolution, Litigation Advocacy and Placement), NLSIU [2011]
• National Legal Services Authority Award for Best Article – Right to Education Seminar [2009]
• Goldman Sachs Global Leaders Award [2008]

Reports and Publications

• All India Citizen Survey of Police Services Questionnaire, submitted to BPR&D, Delhi, Nov 2021
• Cyber-security and Women, submitted to NCW, Delhi, Dec 2022.
• Training Module on Gender Diversity and Inclusion, submitted to Government of Karnataka, Dec 2023.
• The Police Culture Explanation: A Response from Tasneem Deo to The Truth Machines by Jinee Lokaneeta. Law and Other Things (blog), July 9, 2020, https://lawandotherthings.com/2020/07/the-police-culture-explanation-a-response-from-tasneem-deo-to-the-truth-machines-by-jinee-lokaneeta/
• Book Review: Heather Douglas, Francesca Bartlett, Trish Luker and Rosemary Hunter (eds), Australian Feminist Judgments: Righting and Rewriting Law, Oxford University CommonWealth Law Journal (2016).
• Book Review: Assessing the Effectiveness of International Courts by Yuval Shany, 39 Yale Journal of International Law 395, 408 (2014).
• Book Review: The Informal Constitution: Unwritten Criteria in Selecting Judges for the Supreme Court of India by Abhinav Chandrachud, 5 Journal of Indian Law and Society 263 (2014).
• Treatment of Women Accused in the Indian Supreme Court: A Study of Gender Bias in the determination of Culpability and Sentencing, in 1 Gender, Human Rights and Law (Sarasu Esther Thomas ed., 2011).
• Restorative Juvenile Justice and the Child Soldier: Protection of the Perpetrator?, in Unicef Toolkit on Diversion and Alternatives to Detention (2009)
• Fair and Equitable Treatment: An Unfair Standard? A Third World Critique of the Interpretation of FET, in International Law Association Regional Conference on International Trade Law & Legal Aspects of Trans-Border Investment, New Delhi (International Law Association Regional Branch, India ed., 2009) (co-authored).
• An Argument for the Accused: The Importance of Due Process Rights in International Criminal Prosecutions, paper presented at the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung XII Law Talk, Sihanouk, Cambodia (Aug 1-3, 2014).
• Socio-Economic Indicators and Crime Rates: Looking for Correlations, paper presented at the First Azim Premji University International Conference on Law, Governance and Development – Indian Legal System Reform: Empirical Baselines and Normative Frameworks, Bangalore (May 18 and 19, 2012).
• Subsidising the Environment – The Need for Good Governance Solutions to Environmental Challenges of Agricultural Subsidies, paper presented at the 2nd ILSA International Law Conference, Kolkata (Jul 22-25, 2009).