Neetika Vishwanath

Neetika is a Indira Gandhi Scholar reading for a DPhil in Criminology. Her DPhil degree is fully funded by The Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development at Somerville College. Neetika's DPhil project examines the life of India's special legislation on sexual offences against children. The project is supervised by Professor Carolyn Hoyle and Professor Lucia Zedner.

Neetika is trained as a lawyer in India and holds graduate degrees in law and women’s studies from Harvard Law School and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, respectively. She is a Honorary Research Fellow at the Institute for Crime and Justice Policy, Birkbeck, University of London. Neetika is currently on sabbatical from her role as Director – Criminalisation and Punishment at The Square Circle Clinic, a criminal justice initiative at NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad, India. Since 2017, along with three others, Neetika co-led Project 39A and its subsequent transition to The Square Circle Clinic, playing a key role in its evolution into one of India’s foremost centres for pro bono criminal defence litigation and cutting-edge criminal justice research. Neetika has led significant research studies on criminal justice issues in India, with a particular focus on the death penalty, sentencing, and sexual offences.