FEMALE POLICE OFFICERS: GENDER BIAS AND PROFESSIONALISM. Mary Cuadrado

Transcription

1 American Journal of Police, Vol. XIV, No FEMALE POLICE OFFICERS: GENDER BIAS AND PROFESSIONALISM Mary Cuadrado John Jay College of Criminal Justice Among the criteria that define a profession are the special and technical expertise, a clearly delineated and permanent membership, the overcoming of personal attitudes on the part of its members who replace their attitudes with professional ones, and the public s acknowledgment that a field is a profession and consequently its members are professionals. Therefore, anyone who meets the qualifications should be considered a professional regardless of age, race or gender. For a long time women have not been judged by the same standards as men when trying to enter a trade or profession reserved traditionally for men or even after becoming part of it. Women have long been viewed by their peers and by the public as performing below the standards set by their male counterparts. Studies (Goldberg, 1968; Kaschak, 1978; Friend, Kalin and Giles, 1979; Lieberman, 1989) have shown that men are rated as performing better in their fields than women, although the work done was identical or comparable for both sexes. This finding has been consistent regardless of the sex of the respondent. That is, women also rated male performance higher than female performance. Policewomen have not been able to escape this prejudice (Johns, 1979; Milton, 1978; Vega and Silverman, 1982). Balkin (1988) attributes this negative attitude toward policewomen to the ways in which women first came to the police department and the kind of work they did. The earliest functions of women in police departments at the beginning of the century were those of social worker: preventive and protective work with women and children (Balkin, 1988:29). Hale (1992:126) states, there is little doubt that early policewomen were assigned to handle children and their problems because of the female nurturing role. A role, which Hale indicates, coincided with societal values that made women responsible for children growing up to be good citizens, and, the support of national women s groups (League of Women Voters and the General

2 150 American Journal of Police, Vol. XIV, No Federation of Women s Clubs) as well as civic and social hygiene associations (e.g., National Young Women, the Woman s Christian Temperance Union). The preventive-protective role of policewomen is illustrated by Odem and Schlossman s (1991) account of the use of policewomen in Los Angeles during the beginning of the century. Policewomen were used to monitor young girls and intervene if any violated the social and sexual etiquette of the time. This task, Hale (1992) indicates, was the product of the concern the social hygiene movements had regarding the spread of venereal diseases. In 1972, due to the expansion of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act, women were permitted to enter the police force as patrol officers. Thus, the work of policewomen during the past 20 years moved from the social worker function to the police officer role by placing women on patrol where they are exposed to violent situations. Women moving into these traditionally male dominated roles challenge the views held by many male police officers concerning the masculine nature of police work (Milton, 1975; Johns, 1979; Balkin, 1988). Vega and Silverman (1982:32) found that 48 percent of the male officers they interviewed believed that women should not be considered for jobs as police patrol officers (emphasis mine). The conceptions of police work as a man s job is not exclusive to male police officers. The general public has held this view as well. Bell (1982) found that citizens thought that male police officers were better in violent situations than female officers. Bell s findings are similar to those made by other researchers such as Johns (1979) and Kennedy and Homant (1981). The perception of required physical power for police work does not agree with findings from studies conducted in the area. Sherman (1975) concluded that most police duties do not involve confrontation in violent situations and that the presence of a female officer may in fact offset violence on the part of citizens. Kennedy and Homant (1983) found that in cases of battering, the victims perceived policewomen as more capable of calming the men and deflecting violence through discussions. This makes policewomen an asset in violent situations instead of the danger that many male officers and the public perceive. Contrary to views of even female officers, studies have shown that in recent times there is no substantial difference in performance between male and female police officers (Bloch and Anderson, 1974; Sherman, 1975; Sichel et al., 1978). Nonetheless, the perception of difference in performance bases solely on the gender of the officer has persisted, as shown by Bell (1982), Vega and Silverman (1982), Balkin (1988).

3 American Journal of Police, Vol. XIV, No The issue of gender bias against policewomen should be of importance to police officials. Top police officials have become increasingly interested in overcoming the stereotype of the police officer as a non-professional. It is important therefore that perceived professional inadequacies due solely to gender be dealt with and resolved. Since police departments must interact with virtually all components of the criminal justice system, it is imperative that policewomen be viewed in all contexts as professional as their male counterparts. In this study we shall look at differences in the perceptions of male and female police officers concerning appropriateness of action taken on the job, apparent knowledge of police procedures and how professional they appear to conduct themselves in certain situations. The main hypothesis is that policewomen will be perceived as less professional than male police officers. Sample METHODOLOGY The sample consisted of 194 persons: 150 graduate and undergraduate students at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and 44 police officers. The students who cooperated with the study attended classes in the following disciplines: public administration, law and police science, substance abuse studies or criminal justice. The police officers in the sample were contacted by a police officer liaison. Respondents were told that their cooperation was strictly voluntary and were asked not to mark the response sheets in any way that could identify them or their department in order to assure the anonymity of their responses. Because the sample was selected from a college of criminal justice, we were able to compare findings to those of Lieberman (1989) in a liberal arts college. In addition, this sample provides the opportunity to compare possible gender bias of uniformed officers with other persons with a criminal justice system perspective, many of who will go on to careers in criminal justice. Instruments and Administration Each respondent was given a package containing a set of instructions and three different police reports, each with an attached

4 152 American Journal of Police, Vol. XIV, No response sheet. The cover sheet reiterated the verbal instructions given to the respondents before they began. The respondents were told that the packet contained three police reports with response sheets attached to them. They were to become familiar with the response sheet, read the report, then return to the response sheet to answer the four questions related to the report and to provide their personal information consisting of age, sex, highest level of education, occupation and number of years in the occupation. This procedure was to be followed until all three response sheets had been completed. The reports were adapted from ones created and used by Lieberman (1989) in a similar study. The reports were evaluated by police officers, who considered them an adequate representation of what may be found in actual police reports in many jurisdictions. The reports provided the description of the findings and actions taken by an officer and partner during a bank robbery, a drug arrest or a driving-while-intoxicated incident. At the top of each report the name of the officer was clearly indicated: one report was written by a policewoman (Jennifer Sharer or Kathy Gray), one by a male police officer (Timothy Gray or Edward Sharer), and, one written by an officer whose gender could not be identified (A. Pelham). Information on the date, location, time and type of incident was provided at the bottom of each report. The respondents were asked to write the name of the officer reporting the incident in a space provided on the rating sheets. They were then to assess, using a 10 point rating scale, the three police reports one filed by male police officers, one by policewomen, and the third by an officer whose gender could not be identified. Each respondent rated the reports on: appropriateness of action taken, good detail in description, apparent knowledge of police procedures and degree of professionalism. Although not all respondents may have been qualified to answer all of the questions with anything other than a lay person s opinion, this should apply equally to the assessment of both female and male police officer reports. The type of arrest assigned to the police officers was switched between packets to avoid any effects produced by associating certain type of arrests with female or male police officers (e.g., that women can handle a DWI, but not a robbery). Data was analyzed using the SPSS T-Test sub-routine as well as chi-square.

5 American Journal of Police, Vol. XIV, No Description of Sample The unit of analysis in this paper will alternate between respondents (N=194) and rating sheets (N=388). Since the purpose of the neutral police officer was to distract from the fact that there was a male and a female police officer, the responses given for the neutral police officer were not analyzed. Table 1 DESCRIPTION OF SAMPLE N % Sex Female Male Age 22 years old or less years old years old years old or more Mean = Education High School College Graduate School Occupation Law Enforcement Officer Clerical Management/Professional Blue Collar 8 5 Full time student/unemployed Years in Occupation One year years years years or more Mean = 6.42

6 154 American Journal of Police, Vol. XIV, No Sixty-one percent of the respondents were male. The mean age of the respondents was 30 years old. Over four-fifths (86%) had some college education. (Of the remaining 27 persons, 19 were college freshman whose highest grade completed was 12 years of high school.) Approximately half (46%)were police or corrections officers and the mean number of years for all occupations was 6.42 (see Table 1). FINDINGS The first item analyzed is the total score obtained for the male and the female officer reports. For this task a variable of the mean of the total of all scores was created and dichotomized into High and Low. As shown in Table 2A, respondents tended to rate female officers higher than their male counterparts (57% vs. 47% respectively). Contrary to expected findings, for each indicator the mean score for female officers was higher than for the males a finding contrary to similar studies of gender bias using similar techniques (Goldberg, 1968; Kaschak, 1978; Friend, Kalin and Giles, 1979; Lieberman, 1989). Furthermore, the difference in the Professionalism score was statistically significant. The relative lack of bias found in this study may be attributed to the fact that the sample consists of people who are part of and/or familiar with the criminal justice system and the professional status that women occupy. They not only have had experiences with women in the criminal justice system (i.e., police and corrections officers, judges, etc.), but may have become sensitized to the issues of sex bias in police departments. In addition, evaluating actions of policewomen as Professional does not necessarily challenge the idea of police being man s work. On the contrary, it may allow for policewomen to continue to be accepted although, differently than their male counterparts. Table 2A TOTAL EVALUATION SCORES BY SEX OF POLICE OFFICER IN REPORT Score Female Officer Male Officer N % N % Low (1-7) High (8-10) Chi Square = 42.50, p = 0.279

7 American Journal of Police, Vol. XIV, No Table 2B EVALUATION SCORE MEANS FOR OFFICER IN REPORT FOR ALL RESPONDENTS (N=388) 2-Tail Mean T Value Probability Appropriateness of Action Male Officer 7.00 Female Officer Good Detail Male Officer 7.71 Female Officer Knowledge of Procedure Male Officer 6.48 Female Officer Professionalism Male Officer 6.78 Female Officer * Average All Evaluation Score Male Officer 6.99 Female Officer * Sig. at.05 level The scores given to the officers in these reports were then examined according to the characteristics of the respondents age, gender, and occupation in order to determine if these characteristics are related to bias against females in law enforcement. Age Age appears to have an effect on the score respondents will assign to officer reports. Older respondents (over the age of 27) were less likely to give high scores to officers, male or female, than younger respondents 46 percent and 57 percent, respectively. Furthermore, when examining the scores assigned to reports we found that the mean scores assigned to the male officers decreases for each age category, except in the 37+ age category where the mean score for male officers rose sharply

8 156 American Journal of Police, Vol. XIV, No (see Table 3). Only among those in age category was there a statistically significant difference in scoring. Gender Examination of the data by the sex of the respondent shows that female respondents were more likely to assign higher scores than did male respondents (61% vs 46% respectively). This difference was found to be significant at the.001 level. Table 4 below shows that female respondents assigned higher mean scores than the male respondents, but they did so for both the female and male officer reports. Therefore, the responses cannot be attributed to female respondents favoring female officers in the report. Although, the female respondents rated female officer reports higher than male officer reports the differences are too small to be significant. However, the finding that women respondents consistently gave higher scores than male respondents may reflect a traditional female deference to authority translated into not wanting to be too critical of actions described as being taken by police officers regardless of the officer s Table 3 TOTAL EVALUATION SCORE MEANS FOR OFFICERS IN REPORTS BY AGE OF RESPONDENTS 2-Tail Mean T Value Probability Under 22 Years of Age Male Officer 7.61 Female Officer Male Officer 6.75 Female Officer * Male Officer 6.49 Female Officer Years of Age Male Officer 7.26 Female Officer * Sig. at.05 level

9 Table 4 EVALUATION SCORE MEANS FOR OFFICERS IN REPORT BY SEX OF THE RESPONDENTS Female Respondents (N=148) Male Respondents (N=238) Mean T Value 2-Tail Mean T Value 2-Tail Appropriateness of Action Male Officer Female Officer Good Detail Male Officer Female Officer Knowledge of Procedure Male Officer Female Officer Professionalism Male Officer Female Officer * Average All Evaluation Score Male Officer Female Officer * Sig at.05 level American Journal of Police, Vol. XIV, No

10 158 American Journal of Police, Vol. XIV, No described as being taken by police officers regardless of the officer s gender. Of interest is the finding that male respondents consistently scored female officer reports higher than male officer reports, with the largest (and statistically significant) difference being in the male respondents scoring in the Professionalism category. This may be due to the fact that women s bias issues are often presented in the mass media as well as in the classrooms of a large portion of the sample. Thus, female discrimination issues may be salient in the minds of male respondents in particular who may feel they must heighten their awareness to these issues in order not to be offensive to women. This reverse bias may be a temporary but necessary product of the anti-discrimination campaigns that feminists and other groups have conducted for the past decade to help obtain equality for women on the job. The awareness of discrimination against women may cause some males to compensate for underlying long-held views of women as inferior in male roles by viewing female competence on the police force as higher than males, in particular in categories that do not define police work through use of physical strength. Occupation Responses from law enforcement and non-law enforcement individuals were also analyzed. Respondents in law enforcement were far less likely to assign high scores than those in other occupations. Overall high scores assigned by law enforcement respondents was 37 percent compared to professional 54 percent, clerical 67 percent and students 70 percent. These differences were found to be statistically significant at the.0001 level. This difference may be due to the fact that law enforcement respondents more accurately evaluate the actions taken by officers in the reports than other respondents. In Table 5, we find that male officer reports were scored higher than the female officer reports by respondents working in law enforcement (with the exception of Professionalism ). However, none of the variables were statistically significant. On the other hand, when we look at the ratings of respondents in Other occupations we find that female officer reports were assigned higher scores than male officer reports in all categories with the Good Detail, Professionalism, and Average All Evaluation Score being statistically significant at the.05 level.

11 Table 5 EVALUATION SCORE MEANS FOR OFFICERS IN REPORT BY RESPONDENT S OCCUPATION Law enforcement (N=164) Other (N=191) Area of Evaluation Mean T Value 2-Tail Mean T Value 2-Tail Appropriateness of Action Male Officer Female Officer Good Detail Male Officer Female Officer * Knowledge of Procedure Male Officer Female Officer Professionalism Male Officer Female Officer * Average All Evaluation Score Male Officer Female Officer * *Sig at.05 level American Journal of Police, Vol. XIV, No

12 160 American Journal of Police, Vol. XIV, No Are these higher scores for the female officer reports due to a larger proportion of women in the Other occupation group? Table 6 shows that respondents did not tend to favor those in their own gender group. Both female and male respondents in the Other occupation category consistently assigned higher scores to the female officers, while those in law enforcement assigned mixed scores, regardless of the sex of the respondent. It is interesting to note that males in Law Enforcement did not significantly discriminate against the female officers in the report. This may be an indication that the efforts made at many police departments and academies throughout the country may be having an effect on how policewomen are viewed by their colleagues. On the other hand, males in Other occupations assigned statistically significant higher scores to females in the Good Detail and Professionalism categories. Female law enforcement respondents assigned a higher total score to male officer reports than they did to male officer reports (6.44 vs. 6.30). However, there was only a.02 mean difference assigned by male respondents. This might suggest that because women are more recent arrivals to patrol duty, many female officers may still look to the more experienced officers for guidance (who are more likely to be males). CONCLUSION The purpose of this study was to demonstrate that policewomen are perceived as less professional when compared to their male counterparts. Based on findings from past studies in which comparable work by females had been scored lower than males it was hypothesized that female officer reports would be scored lower in the categories of appropriateness of action, use of good detail, apparent knowledge of police procedure and professionalism than male police officer reports. The data indicate that this is not the case. Female officer reports were consistently scored higher than male officer reports, although, most of the differences in scores where not statistically significant. This may be an indication of acceptance of females in the role of law enforcement officers. It should be noted that a sample was obtained that is already part of the criminal justice system or in the process of obtaining an education to become part of it. While Lieberman (1989), in a study using the same police officer reports with a non-criminal justice sample found some bias against female officers in a general population, the present study did not

13 Table 6 EVALUATION SCORE MEANS FOR OFFICERS IN REPORT BY OCCUPATION (CONTROLLING FOR SEX OF RESPONDENT) FEMALE RESPONDENTS Law enforcement (N=32) Other (N=104) Area of Evaluation Mean T Value 2-Tail Mean T Value 2-Tail Appropriateness of Action Male Officer Female Officer Good Detail Male Officer Female Officer Knowledge of Procedure Male Officer Female Officer Professionalism Male Officer Female Officer Average All Evaluation Score Male Officer Female Officer American Journal of Police, Vol. XIV, No

14 MALE RESPONDENTS Law enforcement (N=132) Other (N=88) Area of Evaluation Mean T Value 2-Tail Mean T Value 2-Tail Appropriateness of Action Male Officer Female Officer Good Detail Male Officer Female Officer * Knowledge of Procedure Male Officer Female Officer Professionalism Male Officer Female Officer * 162 American Journal of Police, Vol. XIV, No Average All Evaluation Score Male Officer Female Officer *Sig at.05 level

15 American Journal of Police, Vol. XIV, No find significant bias against female officers, even among male uniformed officer respondents. On the contrary, policewomen were consistently found to be more professional than their male counterparts. Although this is a promising finding for policewomen who have been consistently discriminated against based on their gender, it should also be a message to police departments that police officers of different genders are not yet viewed as equal. This study has also shown that when evaluations of officer competence are based on professionalism dimensions rather than confrontational issues, bias against women does not appear since the main focus of the questions is not on violent situations an officer may encounter, as was done by previous studies (Vega and Silverman, 1982; Bell, 1982). Evaluation variables based on potentially violent situations promotes the belief that police officers are constantly in violent confrontation and that perhaps women could not do the job as well. Violence, although an inevitable occurrence in the life of a law enforcement official, hardly occupies the majority of an officer s working time. Besides, when violence is present female officers have been shown to abate possible confrontations. Police departments may benefit if the public, in particular, were made more aware of these facts. During the last decade police departments throughout the country have begun to promote a professional image. Female officers can be a great asset in the pursuit of this goal, for they may help dispel the myth of the brute force requirement in order to do an effective job as an officer. Police departments must be cautious, though, not to present two separate images: one as a brute force composed of men and another of a professional force composed of women. Further studies are needed to monitor if the changing image of the police department may be now creating discrimination against male officers. The findings in this study may be an encouraging indication that existing perceptions of the police force can be changed through increased recruitment of women, gender sensitivity training provided at the academies, and higher level of education. These may pay off for police departments as they help them achieve their goals to be viewed as professionals, in particular among those working within the Criminal Justice System. Now that many police departments are trying to move toward community policing the full acceptance of the female officer by these departments as well as by the public is essential.

16 164 American Journal of Police, Vol. XIV, No NOTE The author wishes to thank Joel D. Lieberman, Department of Psychology, University of Arizona for allowing the modification and use of his forms for this study. REFERENCES Balkin, J. (1988). Why Policemen Don t Like Female Police Officers, Journal of Police Science and Administration, 16(1): Bell, D. (1982). Policewomen: Myth and Reality, Journal of Police Science and Administration, 10: Bloch, P. and D. Anderson (1974). Policewomen on Patrol: Final Report: Methodology, Tables and Measurement Instruments. Washington, D. C.: Urban Institute. Friend, P.; R. Kalin and H. Giles (1979). Sex Bias in the Evaluation of Journal Studies: Sexism in England, British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 18: Goldberg, P. (1968). Are Women Prejudiced Against Women?, Transaction, 5: Hale, D. (1992). Women in Policing. In G. Cordner and D. Hale (eds.), What Works in Policing: Operations and Administration Examined. Cincinnati, OH: Anderson Publishing. Johns, C. (1979). The Trouble with Women in Policing: Attitudes Aren t Changing, Criminal Justice Review, 4: Kaschak, E. (1978). Sex Bias in Student Evaluation of College Professors, Psychology of Woman Quarterly, 2(3), Kennedy, D. and R. Homant (1981). Nontraditional Role Assumption and the Personality of the Policewoman, Journal of Police Science and Administration, 9(3): Lieberman, J. (1989). The Effects of Sex Bias in the Evaluation of Police Reports. (Unpublished Manuscript). Milton, C. (1978). The Future of Women in Policing. In A. Cohn (ed.), The Future of Policing. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.

17 American Journal of Police, Vol. XIV, No Odem, M. and S. Schlossman ( 1991). Guardians of Virtue: The Juvenile Court and Female Delinquency in Early Twentieth-Century Los Angeles, Crime and Delinquency, 37: Sherman, L. (1975). Evaluation of Policewomen on Patrol in a Suburban Police Department, Journal of Police Science and Administration, 3(4): Sichel, J.; L. Friedman; J. Quint and M. Smith (1978). Women on Patrol: A Pilot Study of Police Performance in New York City. New York, NY: Vera Institute of Justice. Vega, M. and I. Silverman (1982). Female Police Officers as Viewed By Their Male Counterparts, Police Science, 5:

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