Women in Charge by Marisa Silvestri

Author:Marisa Silvestri [Silvestri, Marisa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Criminology
ISBN: 9780415628136
Google: cMoouAAACAAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2012-05-17T03:44:13+00:00

(Re)constructing policing through a balance of gender

In her comparative analysis of American and British policewomen, Heidensohn (1992: 247) speculates about the nature and impact on the police and policing if the gender balance were reversed when she asks, ‘what would happen if their [men’s] “freehold” on policing ceased?’ She postulates that an equality agenda has the potential to encourage a source of innovation and change into policy; a feminisation of policing through an increased focus on crimes such as rape, domestic violence, and child sex abuse; an undermining of police tradition and ‘proper policing’; and the achievement of a representative organisation with increased opportunities for individual women. Brown (1997b: 36–44) also contemplates the future of policing should gender equity and cultural diversity within the police be achieved. Her vision shares much in common with Heidensohn, predicting a change in the emphasis of operational techniques, developing social rather than physical skills; a shift in style dominated by reactivity to one of proactivity; a radicalisation of policing priorities and an ability to influence the probity of police conduct; the development of new methods of cooperative management together with the development of new styles of communication both within the service itself and with the communities served.

The question of what an ideal police department would look like if it were designed by women in law enforcement was also the subject of a think-tank sponsored by the National Centre for Women and Policing (NCWP) in the US. Emerging from discussions was a police department that would be accountable to the community and one whose officers would be highly skilled in communication and problem solving. Adjectives such as ‘brave’, ‘loyal’, or ‘strong’, once used to describe the ideal officer, were replaced by ‘ethical, people oriented, community oriented’ (Feminist Majority Foundation 1997).

Following the beating of Rodney King, the Christopher Commission (1991) deplored the ‘hard-nose’ posturing of Los Angeles policemen, declaring in its report that male officers’ aggressive style ‘produces results at the risk of creating a siege mentality that alienates the officer from the community’ (cited in Appier 1998: 168). The Commission urged the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) to develop a new style of policing based on communication rather than confrontation, noting that policewomen are less likely than policemen to ‘abuse the public’. More specifically it pointed out that, despite the fact that women composed 13 per cent of LAPD’s sworn personnel during the period 1986–90, none of the LAPD’s worst offenders in cases of using excessive force was a woman. In an analysis that links the bias against policewomen with police brutality, the Commission claimed that ‘the continued existence of discrimination against female officers can deprive the department of certain skills, and thereby, contribute to the problem of excessive force’ (ibid.: 170). It found pervasive and deep-rooted sex discrimination and sexual harassment within the LAPD and argued that this discrimination aggravates the excessive force problem within the department by creating a disdain for women’s less violent approach to policing by discouraging and preventing women from achieving equal numbers and reaching the highest ranks within the LAPD.

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