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Attracting and Retaining Females in Law Enforcement: Sex-Based Problems of Women Cops in 1988

NCJ Number
121709
Journal
International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology Volume: 33 Issue: 3 Dated: (December 1989) Pages: 197-205
Author(s)
W M Timmins; B E Hainsworth
Date Published
1989
Length
9 pages
Annotation
The author, in cooperation with a number of Police Officer Standards and Training Academies in the West surveyed over 500 women concerning the reasons they were drawn into police work, as well as the reasons they have remained in police work.
Abstract
Further, the women were asked to identify sex-based problems they encounter in police work in an effort to validate other existing evidence. The study is provocative in that what attracts women into law enforcement careers is more traditional than was supposed. Open sexual harassment and sex discrimination was much more common than supposed -- particularly by supervisors and command who not only tolerated such practices by others, but were frequently themselves prone to such illegal behaviors. Lastly, P.O.S.T. academies need to understand these problems and do some re-design of core curricula. Most of the women surveyed like being a cop, and enjoyed police work. 8 tables, 8 references. (Author abstract)

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