Last week in lecture, Professor Musheno commented on the rising proportion of women to men in law enforcement that has taken place in recent years. However, there are still a number of factors inhibiting the representation of women in law enforcement, including bias from male officers, the lack of recruitment strategies and mentoring programs for female officers, and the prevalence of sexual harassment in these departments. Despite these setbacks though, the solidarity of women in law enforcement has continuously grown due to support in the forms of lawsuits, studies showing the effectiveness of female police officers, and the public.
Many discrimination lawsuits have been filed by female candidates and officers, which often result in agencies being forced to change their policies regarding hiring and/or promoting women. In addition to this, many female officers have filed sexual harassment lawsuits as well, and a majority of these cases are decided in the plaintiff’s favor. Unfortunately, many of the women who bring up these lawsuits are faced with retaliation and resentment afterwards from the police department, but it’s very possible that the people who are willing to challenge the system will benefit everyone in policing in the long run.
Several studies have also shown that women have a style of policing that is very distinct from that of male officers, in that they are much less confrontational and less reliant on physical force, all while still performing their duties at a satisfactory level. Because of this, police brutality and excessive force (two problems that have caused major setbacks for police forces, in terms of money needed to settle lawsuits and the legitimacy of the police department) are considerably less prevalent among female officers. There are also studies showing that the growing population female police officers have made law enforcement agencies more adept at handling cases of violence against women, namely domestic violence. These studies have suggested that female officers believe more strongly in the need to sympathize and understand domestic disputes when trying to successfully resolve them, as well as the need to respond to domestic violence as a crucial police duty. Also, if the victims of domestic abuse feel that their pleas will be treated more seriously, it would help to reduce the number of domestic violence cases that go unreported.
Lastly, while there is some resistance from within the law enforcement agencies, attitudes regarding female police officers have been gradually changing for the better, and most are no longer skeptical about women’s ability to handle any situation as well as a male could, hence the slow but steady growth of their position in law enforcement.
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Many discrimination lawsuits have been filed by female candidates and officers, which often result in agencies being forced to change their policies regarding hiring and/or promoting women. In addition to this, many female officers have filed sexual harassment lawsuits as well, and a majority of these cases are decided in the plaintiff’s favor. Unfortunately, many of the women who bring up these lawsuits are faced with retaliation and resentment afterwards from the police department, but it’s very possible that the people who are willing to challenge the system will benefit everyone in policing in the long run.
Several studies have also shown that women have a style of policing that is very distinct from that of male officers, in that they are much less confrontational and less reliant on physical force, all while still performing their duties at a satisfactory level. Because of this, police brutality and excessive force (two problems that have caused major setbacks for police forces, in terms of money needed to settle lawsuits and the legitimacy of the police department) are considerably less prevalent among female officers. There are also studies showing that the growing population female police officers have made law enforcement agencies more adept at handling cases of violence against women, namely domestic violence. These studies have suggested that female officers believe more strongly in the need to sympathize and understand domestic disputes when trying to successfully resolve them, as well as the need to respond to domestic violence as a crucial police duty. Also, if the victims of domestic abuse feel that their pleas will be treated more seriously, it would help to reduce the number of domestic violence cases that go unreported.
Lastly, while there is some resistance from within the law enforcement agencies, attitudes regarding female police officers have been gradually changing for the better, and most are no longer skeptical about women’s ability to handle any situation as well as a male could, hence the slow but steady growth of their position in law enforcement.
Sources:
This blogpost points to the importance of female involvement in the police force. It raises the issue of the insular, macho-culture that dominates many police departments. This can be seen as problematic in terms of enabling police officers to deal with diversity of clients and array of issues. The speaker today, Holly Joshi, highlighted the unique power the women contribute to police departments. However, she also indicated the persistence of gender stereotypes that pervade police departments and can discourage women from joining the force. It is apparent that cultural shifts may be occurring within police departments. However it is important to recognise that this will be a gradual process that requires shifting engrained mentalities and penetrating the patriarchal culture that has been historically embedded to policing practice and persists today.
ReplyDeleteMadeleine McGlade
I went and re-read the articles, just to see the data firsthand, and I think you did a pretty fair consolidation of the two articles. It was a lot of duplicative information, and I think you did a good job of providing the necessary information. I was hoping to find empirics of some of the claims about women in law enforcement being less-proned to violent encounters, the testimonial by Commander Kristen Ziman was great, but I do wish I had statistical numbers.
ReplyDeleteFor me, testimonials are a great way to personally connect with data, but testimonials and first person accounts don’t always correlate to the data set in large.
Since we all have a lot of positive intuitions about a more gender-equitable police force. It makes us more susceptible to falling into a compositional fallacy, where something is true of the part but not of the whole.
-Mark Sheppard
Thomas, You are correct in noting barriers that female officers experience and how they attempt to use legal redress and then, experience retaliation in some agencies. Reaching a critical mass and organizing on the part of women also shows signs of transforming agencies from the inside out. We experienced a testimonial from a highly decorated officer on Tuesday who validates struggle and at the same time, female officers reaching into the upper echelons of these agencies. I have found it usually takes some female officers successfully engaging in the toughest crime fighting roles to break an agency's bias against women.
ReplyDeleteI find this blog post very interesting especially after Sergeant Joshi's lecture. You mention the distinct style difference in male versus female tactics. Joshi mentioned this too as her approach tended to be more relationship oriented and community based. She also mentioned "girly" women having a harder time adjusting to the predominantly male environment than other women. Her story was extremely compelling and having a real life example of what it is like to be a female sergeant in the Oakland Police Department helps me to understand how much of an asset she truly is to their work. Her experiences undercover in both the drug scene and her work with sex trafficking have shown how much women can actually help in certain situations. With more female officers like Joshi, I feel that law enforcement is moving in the right direction in bringing more women onto the workforce.
ReplyDelete-Kim Newton
I find this blog post very interesting especially after Sergeant Joshi's lecture. You mention the distinct style difference in male versus female tactics. Joshi mentioned this too as her approach tended to be more relationship oriented and community based. She also mentioned "girly" women having a harder time adjusting to the predominantly male environment than other women. Her story was extremely compelling and having a real life example of what it is like to be a female sergeant in the Oakland Police Department helps me to understand how much of an asset she truly is to their work. Her experiences undercover in both the drug scene and her work with sex trafficking have shown how much women can actually help in certain situations. With more female officers like Joshi, I feel that law enforcement is moving in the right direction in bringing more women onto the workforce.
ReplyDelete-Kim Newton
I remember in lecture we discussed how women officers use a different means to get the same result as male officers (as you stated) by being less aggressive and by communicating with citizens. This made me think of a close family friend I have known for many years who grew up in Oakland. As with many other Oakland citizens, he does not respect the police due to his personal experiences. In fact, when police officers pull him over and try to use formalities with him, he still completely disregards the officer's less-aggressive tactics (and calls the cop a pig). After thinking about this, I wondered if using these knew strategies would have to focus more on developing better relationships with the youth of Oakland, because the older folks already have a severed relationship with the police.
ReplyDelete-Dash Oliver
I find it interesting that when women candidates and officers use legal recourse to address discrimination in the workplace, they are often met with retaliations from others. This seems to illustrate the problem with the code of silence amongst police officers as a result of their strong sense of occupational identity.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is good for the agency to hire more women since diversity in law enforcement officers can strengthen its legitimacy in the community. However, aside from the gender barriers that results in discrimination in hiring and the workplace, it would be interesting to know the impact of glass ceiling (if there is any) on women employed in public law enforcement. Sergeant Josie is one example of a women who has successfully risen to the top of the ranks, but is there an adequate proportion of women like her in the agency as a whole?
- Jessica N. Siah