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Public Perceptions of Women in Policing

NCJ Number
136748
Journal
CJ The Americas Volume: 5 Issue: 2 Dated: (April-May 1992) Pages: 13-16
Author(s)
P Jacobs
Date Published
1992
Length
4 pages
Annotation
Despite the fact that women have been doing police work for over 100 years and have been involved in active patrol work for over 20 years, females still encounter resistance.
Abstract
Research in female employment clearly indicates that the percentage of women working in nontraditional fields, including police work, will continue to increase in the future. If women are to be truly integrated into policing, sources of resistance must be alleviated or eliminated. Speculation is that primary resistance to female officers comes from their male counterparts. Status attainment and Marxist feminism theories both suggest that male resistance to female police officers is based on traditional sex role assignments. Public perceptions of women in policing represent another important dimension of the issue. In order to gain some understanding of public perceptions of female police officers, three groups of college students were surveyed. Responses suggested a lack of understanding of the nature of police work. College students did not seem to know exactly what the job involved, and their perceptions appeared to come from media representations of the field. Many respondents felt higher education would be an asset for the police officer, although they were not as certain as to exactly what difference it would make in terms of job performance. The survey findings indicate that the integration of female officers into policing requires not only acceptance by the police department, but also acceptance by the public. Policies that decrease the strength of the police subculture increase the acceptance of women as police officers by both males and the public because these policies emphasize increased and constructive interaction between the police and the public. 15 references and 2 notes

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