Women in Policing: A Longitudinal Assessment of Female Officers in Supervisory Positions in the New York City Police Department

This study examined the growth in the number of female officers in supervisory and command positions (i.e., sergeant to bureau chief) in the New York City Police Department (NYPD) from 2000 to 2013. Time and annual percent changes in the number of male officers, the number of male officers in supervisory and command positions, and the number of female officers served as predictors. An ordinary least squares regression analysis failed to produce statistically significant results for the growth in the number of female officers in supervisory and command positions. The regression analysis also produced statistically nonsignificant results for changes in the level of disparity among male and female officers in supervisory and command positions. Over the past 13 years, female officers have made little progress in advancing to supervisory and command positions in the NYPD.     

Exploring the literature on relationships between gender roles, intimate partner violence, occupational status, and organizational benefits

Studies of intimate partner violence (IPV) and work have been primarily conducted with women in low-wage low-status (LWLS) positions, as much of this research has focused on poverty, welfare, and homelessness. Although women in LWLS positions represent a large percentage of working women in the United States, it is also important to investigate experiences of women in high-wage high-status (HWHS) positions because a growing number of women are employed within such jobs. We propose gender role theory can be used to explain occurrences of IPV among women in HWHS positions and their utilization of organizational benefits. We suggest those in HWHS positions may be likely to have access to organizational benefits (e.g., medical, vacation, and flexible work schedules) and the ability to utilize the Family and Medical Leave Act. However, prevailing gender roles existing in organizations may render women in HWHS positions unlikely to use benefits or to take leave.     

Gender and “Other People's Money”: An Analysis of White-Collar Offender Sentencing

Although the female share of white-collar crime arrests (e.g., fraud, forgery, and embezzlement) continues to increase, little is known about the nature of women's involvement in these offenses, or the extent to which the legal treatment of white-collar offenders differs by gender. Using national survey data on employee crime, the present research addresses these voids in the literature. Consistent with prior research, women's roles in fraud offending are restricted by their positions in the organizational hierarchy. In support of the focal concerns perspective, results show that the decision to incarcerate and length of sentence are primarily shaped by indicators of offender blameworthiness. Findings reported here contribute to the literature on gender and white-collar crime, and also extend the growing body of focal concerns research to a previously unexplored sentencing context.     

Do Women Representatives Regender Legislative Bureaucracy? Assessing the Effect of Representative Sex on Women's Presence among US Congressional Staff

Achieving greater female presence in influential positions is a commonly discussed strategy for gender reform in institutions such as the US Congress. Using theory adapted from research on gender in the workplace, this study examines whether women representatives, as ‘managers’ of congressional offices, alter patterns of gender representation in Congress by hiring and promoting more women staffers compared with men representatives. Cross-sectional logistic regression analyses of staffer sex during the 110th and 111th Congresses (2007–10) reveal a positive relationship between women representatives and female presence on congressional staffs. However, the relationship does not hold with respect to the most influential staff positions. These findings provide only limited support for theories that women representatives act as ‘change agents’ by directly facilitating opportunities for women, and highlight the importance of exploring alternative strategies for empowering women and regendering legislative institutions.     

The Role of Lifestyle and Personal Characteristics on Fear of Victimization among University Students

The fear of crime has been both theoretically and empirically connected to a complex relationship of situational context (e.g., time of day, location) and personal characteristics (e.g., age, race, gender, personal and vicarious victimization). Building off of routine activities and lifestyle-exposure theory, this research extends the understanding of these relationships by examining the impact of lifestyle activities (e.g., consumption of alcohol, illicit drugs, and time away from residence) and personal characteristics (e.g., direct and vicarious victimization) on the fear of various crimes across temporal situations, among a sample of college and university students. The results indicate that fear of crime varies by crime type and that certain demographic and lifestyle characteristics and experiences with victimization affect students?? fear of crime. Although no evidence was found to suggest that fear of theft varies by temporal context (i.e., during the day or at night), certain characteristics, such as gender, perceived risk, and avoidance behaviors, have varying relationships with fear of violent crimes when considering time of day. The findings suggest that future research should examine more critically the relationship that lifestyles, personality, gender, and time of day have with the fear of crime.     

REPORTING CRIME TO THE POLICE, 1973–2005: A MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS OF LONG-TERM TRENDS IN THE NATIONAL CRIME SURVEY (NCS) AND NATIONAL CRIME VICTIMIZATION SURVEY (NCVS)*

Although many efforts have been made during the past several decades to increase the reporting of crime to the police, we know little about the nature of long-term crime-reporting trends. Most research in this area has been limited to specific crime types (e.g., sexual assault), or it has not taken into account possible changes in the characteristics of incidents associated with police notification. In this article, we advance knowledge about long-term trends in the reporting of crime to the police by using data from the National Crime Survey (NCS) and the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) and methods that take into account possible changes in the factors that affect reporting at the individual and incident level as well as changes in survey methodology. Using data from 1973 to 2005, our findings show that significant increases have occurred in the likelihood of police notification for sexual assault crimes as well as for other forms of assault and that these increases were observed for violence against women and violence against men, stranger and nonstranger violence, as well as crimes experienced by members of different racial and ethnic groups. The reporting of property victimization (i.e., motor vehicle theft, burglary, and larceny) also increased across time. Overall, observed increases in crime reporting account for about half of the divergence between the NCVS and the Uniform Crime Reporting Program (UCR) in the estimated magnitude of the 1990s crime decline—a result that highlights the need to corroborate findings about crime trends from multiple data sources.     

The consumption of patriarchy: commodification to facilitation and reification

There is an abundance of research from cultural, critical and feminist criminology that has recognized media as a vehicle to propagate various forms of gender inequality and violence against women. Likewise, there has been extensive research on how childhood products and toys replicate the patriarchal construction of gender. However, these bodies of research have been relatively silent on how the commodification of culture is consumed and reified by the very population it oppresses (i.e. women). Here, we argue that violence against women is commodified and eagerly consumed in an age of neo-liberalism, legitimizing the patriarchal power structures that subordinate women. Our goal is to begin a discussion of female consumption of the commodification that gives consent and facilitates the patriarchal perpetual power system. Using examples from media and the consumer market, we hope to begin a broader discussion of how patriarchy, gender roles and inequality are reinforced through everyday banal consumption by both sexes. However, this banal consumption by females not only lends to the legitimization of the heteronormative patriarchal status quo but also makes them active participants in the continuation of inequality and power structures inherent within this patriarchal society.     

Assessing Jail Inmates' Proneness to Shame and Guilt: Feeling Bad About the Behavior or the Self?

This study of 550 jail inmates (379 male and 171 female) held on felony charges examines the reliability and validity of the Test of Self Conscious Affect -Socially Deviant Version (TOSCA-SD; Hanson & Tangney, 1996) as a measure of offenders' proneness to shame and proneness to guilt. Discriminant validity (e.g., vis-à-vis self-esteem, negative affect, social desirability/impression management) and convergent validity (e.g., vis-à-vis correlations with empathy, externalization of blame, anger, psychological symptoms, and substance use problems) was supported, paralleling results from community samples. Further, proneness to shame and guilt were differentially related to widely used risk measures from the field of criminal justice (e.g., criminal history, psychopathy, violence risk, antisocial personality). Guilt-proneness appears to be a protective factor, whereas there was no evidence that shame-proneness serves an inhibitory function. Subsequent analyses indicate these findings generalize quite well across gender and race. Implications for intervention and sentencing practices are discussed.     

Determinants of attitudes toward police of Latino immigrants and non-immigrants

Though much attention has been given to the effect of ethnicity on perceptions of the police, few studies had focused on Latino immigrants. Using research conducted in an immigrant rich area, this study examined the possibility that determinants of attitudes toward the police differ across immigrants and non-immigrants. Using several statistical techniques, this article explores the impact of the most commonly used variables (e.g., age, gender, contact with the police) as well as those most associated with immigrants (e.g., language proficiency, religiosity, residential stability). Other variables used to assess various social processes (e.g., social cohesion, informal social control, neighboring and civic behavior) were also included. The findings revealed variations in determinants of attitudes toward the police between immigrants and non-immigrants, and suggest distinct social processes may account for these differences. These findings suggest that both researchers and policymakers must expand their breadth to more fully understand immigrant attitudes toward the police.     

Confidence in the police among Korean people: An expressive model versus an instrumental model

The legitimacy of police authority has often been questioned due to a relatively low level of public confidence in the police in South Korea. Instrumental and expressive perspectives provide competing explanations of the determinants of public confidence in the police. Empirical studies comparing these competing perspectives are thus far limited to British and US studies. To fill this void, this study used a structural equation modeling approach to examine expressive and instrumental models of confidence in the police among South Koreans. Analyses of data from the Korean National Crime Victimization Survey revealed that both models were empirically supported. However, the expressive perspective (i.e., perceptions of local disorder, informal social control, and social cohesion) was more important than the instrumental perspective (i.e., worries about crime) in explaining confidence in the police among Koreans. The implications for research and policy are discussed based on the findings.     

CASTE,CLASS, AND VIOLENT CRIME: EXPLAINING DIFFERENCE IN FEMALE OFFENDING*

During the past decade, criminological research has targeted gender as an important discriminator of criminal participation and persistence. Yet, the research question too often contrasts the criminality of males and females without taking into account key differences among female populations. In this paper, race and class combine to produce uniquely situated populations of females (e.g., “underclass” black females) who, when compared with their gender and racial counterparts, also appear to have unique patterns of criminality. Using the extant literature, black female violent crime is juxtaposed against that of white females and black males in order to show how crime varies across groups and the potential sources of those differences. Three theoretical perspectives (neo-Marxian, powercontrol, and socialist-feminist theory) are reviewed and evaluated for their intragender/racial inclusivity. Directions for further empirical research and theoretical development are suggested. Class-oppressed men, whether they are white or black, have privileges afforded them as men in a sexist society. Similarly, class-oppressed whites, whether they are men or women, have privileges afforded them as whites in racist society… . Those who are poor, black, and female have all the forces of classism, racism, and sexism bearing down on them (Mantsios, 1988:66–67).     

Examining the Impact of Ecological Contexts on Gender Disparity in Federal Sentencing

Gender disparity in sentencing outcomes has been well established in literature. Recent research has increasingly paid attention to social contexts within which judicial decision-making occurs. This study combines these two lines of research by dissecting the nature of gender disparity through ecological lenses. Using 2008–2010 federal sentencing data, we examine the roles of religious and political conservatism in affecting gender-based sentencing disparity. We find that religious and political conservatism reduces gender disparity, with the female discount dissipating in court communities with higher levels of religious and political conservatism. We also find that the conditioning effects of both religious conservatism and political conservatism on gender disparity further interact with race, with black female defendants more likely to be influenced by religious and political conservatism than their white counterparts. Overall, this study contributes to sentencing literature by demonstrating that gender disparity is deeply entrenched in the ecological contexts of court communities.     

Feminized justice: The impact of women decision makers in the lower courts in Australia

We examine the impact of an Australian state government's decision to appoint a considerable number of women to its previously all-male Magistrates' Courts. Interviews with a sample of 30 male and female magnistrates revealed ready acceptance of this major change, probably because of organizational peculiarities of the jurisdiction. The advent of women as judicial decision makers was perceived to have improved the work environment of the courts. Comparison of the ways in which male and female magistrates perceive aspects of their job (e.g., judicial role, adjudication, sentencing, and the conduct of informal proceedings) suggests that most of the apparent gender differences are more likely the product of age and background than evidence of justice “in a different voice.” Changes in court ideology suggest that the appointment of women may have been used to further more general political objectives. A critical question for feminist research might be: When and why do conservative institutions adopt strategies that apparently promote women's interests?     

“Women’s Inhumanity Towards Women?” Treatment of Female Crime Suspects by Female Officers of the Nigerian Police

This article presents findings from a new qualitative study of female offenders’ interactions with Nigerian policewomen. Against the position of policing literature and feminists and gender advocates that abusive treatment of female arrestees is a function of policemen’s misconduct, this study exposes the active roles played by policewomen in inflicting violence on female detainees. We argue therefore that the mere increase in number and participation of policewomen in the criminal justice system will not address the violent treatment of female suspects; rather, the restructuring of the power dynamics in the police that currently subjects policewomen to the definitions, acceptance, and approval of male-dominant superiors is required.     

TRENDS IN FEMALE DELINQUENCY

National arrest statistics combined with juvenile court, self-report, and field observational data are used to evaluate current conceptions of the changing nature of female delinquency. Adolescent females made arrest gains in the categories of larceny (e.g., shoplifting). liquor law violations (e.g. underage drinking), and runaways. Studies of juvenile gangs show no increase in female violence or gang-related delinquencies while self-report data show that, with the exception of marijuana use and drinking, female delinquency has remained generally stable over the past decade. We conclude that patterns of female delinquency, especially as revealed in nonofficial sources of evidence, have changed very little in recent years and that female delinquency continues to reflect traditional sex roles. The evidence suggests that the Women's Movement has had little or no effect on female delinquency. At the end of the report. we suggest alternative views regarding female delinquency and the forces shaping it.     

Gender Differences in Officer Attitude and Behavior

Abstract

Historically, research on gender differences in police work has focused on whether women can “hold their own” in the male-dominated profession of policing. This body of research has undergone a shift from examining whether women can do the job, to how women do the job differently. This topic is intertwined with the increased use of community policing and recognition of the importance of officers having strong “people” skills and the ability to work with citizens. This paper focuses on how male and female officers respond to citizens differently in terms of providing comfort. Results from this analysis indicate that neither officer attitude nor behavior is dictated by officer sex. Rather, other important variables interact with sex to explain attitude and behavior. In addition, situational factors are most important in determining officer behavior. Officer attitude about citizens is not related to officers providing comfort to citizens.     

Reflections of African-American Women on their Careers in Urban Policing. Their Experiences of Racial and Sexual Discrimination

This article examines the social organizational relationships and interactions that position African-American policewomen as outsiders within their own department. Their exclusion arises not only from dominant white males but from other subordinated groups such as white female and black male officers. The authors found persistent and pervasive patterns of sexual and racial discrimination. This qualitative research is based on data obtained from a population of all 21 black female police officers in a large urban city. The work experiences of black women in policing highlight several problematic areas. These women often experience gender discrimination related to professional abilities, job performance, and supervisory responsibilities. They experience racism in the form of derogatory remarks, and in the areas of hiring and promotion. Their marginality based on gender and race also is readily apparent in relationships among officers.     

A CENTURY OF CRIME IN TORONTO: GENDER,CLASS, AND PATTERNS OF SOCIAL CONTROL, 1859 TO 1955 *

A great deal of attention has been focused on the nature and extent of contemporary gender differences in criminality and, especially, recent increases in female crime rates. The failure to examine the relation among gender roles, social control mechanisms, and crime rates within a broad historical context, however, has contributed to several shortcomings and misconceptions in current research and theorizing. Results of a time-series analysis of male and female arrests in Toronto from 1859 to 1955 reveal an overall decline in male and female rates, as well as an overriding similarity in long-term patterns of male and female arrest rates for different categories of offenses In particular, the preponderance of public order arrests for males and females strongly confirms the enduring relation between social class and official criminality, regardless of gender. To explain the long-term reduction in female arrest rates, qualitative data are used to illustrate the historically contingent relation between gender roles and changes in formal and informal structures of social control. The findings point to the prominent role of “Yrst-wave feminists” in changing the forms of both formal and informal controls on women, which contributed to a sharp decline in female arrest rates during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.     

From West Africa to the Balkans: exploring women’s roles in transnational organized crime

There is a lack of reliable data on the role of women in transnational organized crime. So far, the focus of this research has overwhelmingly been on the Italian Mafia. Little is known about women’s roles in other types of organized crime activities. Since there is an ongoing perception that draws on stereotypical imagery of women in organized crime as appendixes to their male counterparts, this article explores whether women are indeed as oppressed in transnational organized crime as they are in other spheres of life. It focuses on the stereotypical constructions of femininity (victims) and masculinity (criminals) and argues that hegemonic gender roles are defined by the dominant European/American culture. The article takes a multicultural feminist approach and studies female criminality in the context of “doing gender,” an approach that assumes that the feminine gender role is something that must be accomplished in the context of specific situations. By studying the roles of women from West Africa and the Balkans in transnational criminal activities, it specifically examines how time and space, as well history and culture, contribute to one’s position in a criminal network.     

GENDER AND IMPRISONMENT DECISIONS

Guidelines sentencing data from Pennsylvania for the years 1985–1987 are analyzed to assess the influence of gender on judges' imprisonment decisions. These data provide detailed information on offense severity and prior record, permit statistical controls for other variables thought to affect imprisonment decisions, cover a fairly comprehensive list of common-law offenses (with adequate sample size), and contain judges' dispositional-departure reasons for sentences outside the guidelines schema. The data—analyzed with additive and interactive models–indicate that gender (net of other factors) has a small effect on the likelihood of imprisonment toward lesser jailing of female defendants but has a negligible effect on the length-of-imprisonment decision. Observations and interview responses from selected judges help to clarify the ways in which judges' sentencing practices are gender linked. Together, the statistical and the qualitative data suggest that the sentencing practices of judges are driven by two main concerns, blameworthiness (e.g., as indicated by prior record, type of involvement, remorse) and practicality (e.g., as indicated by child-care responsibility, pregnancy, emotional or physical problems, availability of adequate jail space). Based on our findings, we suspect that when men and women appear in (contemporary) criminal court in similar circumstances and are charged with similar offenses, they receive similar treatment. A major question from a policy perspective is, when gender disparities in sentence outcomes do arise, are the disparities warranted or unwarranted?