THE IMPACT OF SITUATIONAL FACTORS ON FORUM CHOICE AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT IN BANGLADESH.

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 social factors, such as socioeconomic status, or by eventspecific 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]