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Police Reform Needs Women: Gender Equity as Cultural Change

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Rethinking and Reforming American Policing

Abstract

Although women have been “allowed” into policing, we must acknowledge that they are not fully integrated until they are adequately represented at all levels. Women need to be able to do their job without harassment, have more power in decisions about health and family, and stop feeling like they must work twice as hard as men to earn the same respect. In this chapter, we argue the low proportion of women in policing is less about women and more a symptom of the culture and organizational structure that defines policing. We argue that police departments need to examine and address issues surrounding value and identity fit between the current culture and image of policing and those they are trying to attract. We believe that cultural change is necessary to bring more women into policing but also that women’s movement toward equity will contribute positively to cultural change.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    We conducted approximately 45 interviews with women in law enforcement between February and June of 2021. We have only conducted preliminary analysis but were able to identify several quotes from interviews that aligned with or added depth to the broader analysis of the empirical and theoretical literature.

  2. 2.

    Criminal Justice majors comprised approximately 40% of the sample; thus, these numbers likely overestimate the percentage that have considered policing more globally.

  3. 3.

    It should be noted that our data represent students at predominantly white institutions (PWI) and were collected in 2017 and 2018 so we cannot account for possible changes since the murder of George Floyd and other events of 2020.

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  1. School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Nebraska Omaha, Omaha, NE, USA

    Samantha S. Clinkinbeard & Rachael M. Rief

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  1. Samantha S. Clinkinbeard
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Correspondence to Samantha S. Clinkinbeard .

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    Joseph A. Schafer

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    Richard W. Myers

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Clinkinbeard, S.S., Rief, R.M. (2022). Police Reform Needs Women: Gender Equity as Cultural Change. In: Schafer, J.A., Myers, R.W. (eds) Rethinking and Reforming American Policing. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88896-1_7

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