The research also hypothesized that participants' perceptions of the fit between the officer's gender and the abilities needed to respond effectively to the crime or problem and not gender itself would influence their assessments of the officer's actions. The case involved a police officer who responded to a possible crime and was later charged with misconduct. The research used a between-subjects design with six scenarios that varied the officer gender, participant gender, attitude toward capital punishment, and crime to which the officer responded. The crimes were domestic assault, shoplifting, and a noisy party. Accusations included failing to protect the domestic violence victim, false arrest of the shoplifting suspect, and excessive force while arresting the host of the noisy party. Outcome measures included the probability of guilt, verdict, damages, and ratings of the officer's professionalism. Results supported the hypothesis that participants' evaluations of the officer would vary according to the perceived fit between officer gender and type of crime. The female officer received a higher estimate of probability of guilt than the male officer in the domestic violence case, but a lower estimate in the shoplifting and noisy party cases. Findings suggested that public perceptions of police officers reflected gender-stereotyped expectations; thus, female police officers had a qualitatively different impact than male officers. Note and 47 references