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Discrimination of women in the police
Police stereotypes
Police stereotypes
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In life there are a lot of issues that involve social psychology. Being a police officer is a profession that encounters a lot of social psychology issues. One issue that all police officers have to encounter is prejudice. Police officers have to not be prejudiced against the citizens that they are trying to protect and serve the criminals that they must apprehend and also against each other. Two case studies that will be discussed are prejudice against female police officers by their male counterparts and racial prejudice against potential criminals.
You’re a female cop. You arrive to your precinct fifteen minutes before you scheduled time to prepare yourself for the day, and you patiently wait for your partner to arrive. Fifteen minutes after your scheduled time, your partner shows up. Although he did not call ahead of time, your captain did not reprimand him for his actions. You get mad at this because, just last week when you did call and say you would be a little late, you still got yelled at by the same captain for being late and your job position was threatened.
As you’re out on patrol, you noticed a small brawl between two men starting to form in front of a corner store. You inform your partner about the possible fight and instruct him to pull over so you can see what’s going on. As the two of you get out of the car he says, “You should stay in the car there could be weapons involved and I don’t know if you can handle that.” You inform him that you have been working for the police force for over six years and have had to deal with situations far worse than this. He then tells you that this is a man's job and if he needs help he will call you for back up. Instead of fighting with him, you get back in the car even madder because of the comments he made about you. You sit in the car thinking if you were another male cop then it would not have been a problem, but since you are a female, there is a stereotype set upon you that you are weaker then he is and could not handle the situation. While thinking about this, you notice in the rearview mirror that your partner seems to be having some problems. As you get out of the car, you call for some backup just in case the situation gets out of hand. As you rush to his aid, he falls to the ground after being struck by one of the assailants. After a short fight between the two assa...
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...he officer already has beliefs about this suspect he will treat the suspect a certain way. The way that the officer asks the suspect the questions, may lead the suspect to act in a different manner than he normally would have, and if the suspect acts the way that the police officer expected him too, because of his race, then the theory of self-fulfilling prophesy is very present. Also, the illusionary correlation, which is when a person over-estimates the association between variables that are only slightly or not at all related, (Brehm, Kassin, & Fein, 2005), may have come into play. Since the officer already used prejudice to associate the man with the crime, the fact that he is Hispanic and was nearby may make him a suspect, but there is no hard evidence.
As a police officer there are a lot of social psychological factors that come into play every day. You must constantly be helping people, not discriminating, unbiased in every way, and of course keeping an open mind at all times. All of the theories presented here should be taught to police officers, while they are in training, to help them to be able to handle these situations if any arise.
The Baltimore City police have faced a myriad of problems in the last year. The riots following the Freddie Gray arrest were reported around the country and created a situation where the Governor was forced to call in the National Guard to protect the city. Community leaders report that African American’s are stopped, searched and arrested at a far greater number than Caucasian’s. The Baltimore city police are at an impasse with the community at this time, it is up to the city leaders and the police officials to come up with some real solutions to the issues that can no longer be ignored.
Police Psychology: A New Specialty and New Challenges for Men and Women in Blue. Thomas, David J. 2011.
In the New York Time Article by Timothy William, Inquiry to Examine Racial Bias in the San Francisco Police Department, first thing to remember known as implicit social cognition, implicit bias refer to the attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner. Another key point to argument is that there is no systematic bias in the criminal justice base on race. To point out, in performing their policing duties, police officer are able to exercise a high degree of discretion. This means that they have a have a broad freedom to make decision about how to act on the given situation. For this reason some police officer deliberately use their wide power of discretion and their authority to perform
According to Dr. Carl S. Taylor, the relationship between minority groups and police in the United States has historically been strained. Some cities have a deep and bitter history of bias and prejudice interwoven in their past relationships. The feeling in many communities today is that the system pits law enforcement as an occupying army versus the neighborhood. Dr. Taylor wrote about easing tensions between police and minorities, but stated “If there is any good news in the current situation, it is that the history of this strain has found the 1990’s ripe for change.
Police officer normally works with community as a team and addresses any problems; they find a solution to that problem. In 21st century the police officer was required to work closely with communities to make sure maintain of social order and build relationship in order to effectively fight against crime. However, majority of racial and ethnic groups targets of abusive treatment at the hands of police. As evidence suggested that police officer stereotype residents and treating them unlawfully, some studies stated that police officer verbal and physical abuse and unjustified street stops. (Weitzer, Tuch & shogan
Policing is a very difficult job to do because it can be very misunderstood. The power given to them may make people of minority feel like they are up against the wall and are at a disadvantage because of how they look. But it is still 100% unclear whether racial profiling is a racial bias or the police forces institution policy. Yet multiple of Officers, even those of color unfortunately rely upon this to help them in the duties.
Inn, A., Wheeler, A. C., & Sparling, C. L. (1997). The effects of suspect race and situation hazard on police officer shooting behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 616-626.
Most people, if asked would surely agree that being a police officer is not easy, but most probably do not realize that becoming one is just as difficult. During our field trip to the Warren County Police Department Major Bowles and officer Fields talked a little about the extensive process, similar to the process our textbook, Forensic Psychology describes, of being hired into the police department. After putting in their application and being selected to move forward in the program a future police officer must have a background check, complete a psychological screening, a polygraph test, several interviews, and a physical test. If they pass each of those they continue on to the police academy. In whole, the process takes over a year before
Although women in law enforcement has increased within the past 20-30 years, the struggle to be fully accepted and held to the same standard as a male continues, and this is mainly due to barriers such as the attitudes of male officers. Many policemen continue to express negative views of female officers such as the perception of being less physically capable, mentally and emotional feeble, and unable to earn the trust and respect of citizens. (Davis, 2005) There are many beliefs that because men have maintained the lead role in law enforcement, allowing more women to carry out the same duties demystifies the masculine persona that has always gone hand in hand with policing. There remains the stigma that males have always had the protective role, not a female, and this way of thinking continues to be difficult to deter from. On the other hand, although it is not fact, many police authorities would agree that policewomen are better empathizers and sympathizers in cases concerning women and children - - as mentioned before, and that they tend to approach situations with a unique perspective; bringing different ideas and virtues to the table. For example, most female officers who are petite in stature, know they are unable to stop a physical confrontation, so in order to prevent the occurrence of a fight, will resort to communication to calm the situation. Not to say that males do not have compassion, but there is the maternal quality about females that juveniles feel more comfortable talking to rather than a big scary guy in uniform. (Miller, 2012) In other ways, female officers receive more respect than a male officer might. Patrol Officer Denelle Craul, of East Pennsboro Police Department believes, “Men are taught to respec...
With all the authority and power that is gained by being a police officer, the job is bound to attract a few individuals looking to take advantage. While recruiting, the police aim to weed out those unfit for the job and its included responsibilities, but no system is perfect. Sometimes there are officers that take advantage of the system, just like people may do in any other job.
"A policeman’s first obligation is to be responsible to the needs of the community he serves…The problem is that the atmosphere does not yet exist in which an honest police officer can act without fear of ridicule or reprisal from fellow officers. We create an atmosphere in which the honest officer fears the dishonest officer, and not the other way around.", -Frank Serpico.
It is both a result and a cause of police isolation from the larger society and of police solidarity. Its influence begins early in the new officer’s career when he is told by more experienced officers that the “training given in police academies is irrelevant to ‘real’ police work”. What is relevant, recruits are told, is the experience of senior officers who know the ropes or know how to get around things. Recruits are often told by officers with considerable experience to forget what they learned in the academy and in college and to start learning real police work as soon as they get to their Field Training Officers. Among the first lessons learned are that police officers share secrets among themselves and that those secrets especially when they deal with activities that are questionable in terms of ethics, legality, and departmental policy, are not to be told to others. They also are told that administrators and Internal Affairs officers cannot often be trusted. This emphasis on the police occupational subculture results in many officers regarding themselves as members of a “blue
Women bring unique skills and techniques to policing such as: compassion and understanding during undesirable and traumatic incidents. Although, women do not possess the muscles or physical strength as the male officers, they do have effective invaluable interpersonal skills. Females are viewed as threats by their male peers. Women face prejudice, peer bullying, and sometimes sexual harassment during their career in law enforcement (Criminal Justice School Info, 2014). The male officers believe that women have unfair advantages when it comes to getting promotions or advancements. In actuality, a lot of women in law enforcement are afraid to apply for higher positions due to fear of maltreatment by the male officers. Women who work in law enforcement often feel as if they must “prove themselves” beca...
Since the inception of this niche in psychology, there has been a greater appreciation for the use of police psychological services. Now almost every police department has a separate psychology department with a number of psychologists working with its other employees. This specialized subset of psychology delivers a number of services to its employees, from assessing qualified applicants, counseling, to suspect profiling and providing expertise during hostage situations. The field has grown tremendously, especially over the last 40 years and has developed into its own sub-specialty with its own dedicated research, journals and professional organizations. During that time, there have been great strides made in developing this relationship betwe...
Although the right for a woman to work has come a long way since then, there are still issues with inequality as more minority women are seeking work within law enforcement. As of 2003 minorities made up only 23.6% of the police population, in increase from 17% in 1990 (Bureau of Justice). Police departments across America are finding it difficult to fulfill positions with minorities, let alone minority women. The lack of diversity within a department can greatly impact the community in which they serve. Communities that are diverse should be mirrored by law enforcement agencies that are as equally diverse. Major demographic shifts are one common factor of many police departments where officers least reflect the racial and ethnic makeup of their communities. For example, if a Hispanic woman was sexually assaulted and wanted to report the crime to police, she may be hesitant on conversing with a white, male officer. Whereas if the police department had a Hispanic or Latino woman on their force, she may be more willing to report the assault that had taken place. Hispanics may want nothing to do with cops if they have migrated from countries notorious for police corruption. Just convincing them to call police is challenging, so it may take a generation or two before their children view law enforcement as a career. Agencies must set