India's Ongoing Rape Crisis

In mid-January, when New Delhi police arrested Sunil Rastogi for sex crimes against underage girls, the 38-year-old father of five made a horrifying confession: He claimed to have assaulted, or tried to assault, as many as 500 girls over the course of more than a decade.

It’s not clear how reliable that number is, but since 2004, authorities have arrested Rastogi at least 15 times on similar charges, and he hasn’t been convicted. A court has yet to scrutinize his recent confession, but since his arrest in January, investigators say they have linked him to 58 sex crimes across at least three states—where victims identified him by a distinctive red-and-white shirt.

Shocking as Rastogi’s alleged crimes may seem, few in India seem surprised that he has never been punished. Over the past few years, many across the country have