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Police Use of Force: Does Gender POLICE USE OF FORCE: DOES GENDER MAKE A DIFFERENCE by LORENE M.SANDIFER Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Criminology/Criminal Justice The University of Texas at Arlington in Parti al Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS IN CRIMINOLOGY AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON DECEMBER 2006 Copyright © by Lorene M. Sandifer 2006 All Rights Reserved ACKNOWLEDGE MENTS I would like to thank the Appleton, Wisconsin, Concord, California, Denton, Texas, Framingham, Massachusetts, and Spartanburg, South Carolina Police Departments for their participation in my study. I also would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Alejandr o delCarmen for his support and guidance. Dr. del Carmen is an inspiration to those he comes into contact with and a motivational beacon to those seeking knowledge. To the ladies in the criminal justice office, Kathy and Lindy, thank you for your patience and kindness. I must also acknowledge my good friend and classmate Alan Ma, for his friendship and invaluable help along the way. To Nancy, for all the sacrifices, thank you. To my Mom and Dad, thank you for your continual encouragement, support and love throughout my life and this endeavor. iii ABSTRACT POLICE USE OF FORCE: DOES GENDER MAKE A DIFFERENCE Publication No. _____ Lorene M. Sandifer, M.A. The University of Texas at Arlington, 2006 Supervising Professor: Dr. A. del Carmen Th is study addresses the perception of the use of force and some differences that exist between males and females within law enforcement. A survey was distributed to five average sized police departments across the United States to survey the perceptions of the men and women in blue. The hypothesis is that women officers use less force to successfully accomplish the same desired outcomes in police/citizen contacts. At the time of this study, there have been no formal surveys on this subject. The survey re sponse rate was 50% and the responses were tabulated to determine officers’ perceptions on the use of force. Many other surveys and articles were reviewed in order to present a true picture of the reality of the force that law enforcement officers use. A survey was conducted in order to contribute to the body of knowledge concerning police use of force, and the differences occurring between genders. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................ ................................ ....................... iii ABSTRACT ................................ ................................ ................................ ............... iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................ ................................ ........................... v LIST OF TABLES ................................ ................................ ................................ ..... vi CHAPTE R 1. INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………….. 1 2. LITERATURE REVIEW ................................ ................................ .............. 8 3. METHODOLOGY ……… ................................ ................................ ........... 28 4. ANALYSIS……………………. ................................ ................................ ... 34 5. DISCUSSION ……………………………………………………………… 43 APPENDIX A. SUPPLEME NTALS…………………………………………………………. 48 REFERENCES ……………………………………………………………………….. 56 BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION…………................................ ............................. 67 v LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Respondents & Female % ................................ ................................ .................... 31 2. Means & t -test for Attitudes toward Fe males Performing Their Job ................................ ................................ 36 3. Means & t -test for Atti tudes toward Force by Gender ................................ ........... 39 4. Means & t -test comparisons for Talk vs. Physical Force ................................ ...... 41 vi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION “When you’r e in uniform and you’re a man, people see a cop. If you’re a woman and you’re in uniform, people don’t see a cop, they see a woman.” Female officer (Gerber (2001, p. xiii) While the occupation of policing can be traced back for thousands of years (Canci no, 2001), the entrance of women into police organizations only began to appear in the early 1800’s (Schulz, 1995). Women entered police work as jail and prison matrons, relying on their maternal and feminine qualities (Garcia, 2003). Women were used as counselors to female victims and surrogates to children (Schulz, 1995). While it is this maternal and compassionate role that hindered the advancement of women in police work for over a century, it is this same role that is now emerging from research as the ir shining asset (Mangold, 2003). It seems apparent that the soft spoken female officer that chooses to de -escalate a potentially violent situation verbally, and leans on communication instead of violence and brawn, should be recognized in today’s law en forcement as an asset. In this day of police violence populating the press, and lawyers lining up to handle the plethora of brutality lawsuits, perceptions on the use of force and any possible differences that exist between males and females could be viewe d as a frontier that needs further exploration. It can be argued from a review of the literature written on police roles and responsibilities, that women have brought different qualities than males to police work (Schulz, 1995). 1 The role of the female off icer, as well as the acceptance by her peers, has been very slow to evolve (Harrington, 1999). It is important to review the history of police roles and police work to understand how deeply the roots of male supremacy are embedded in the occupation and how hesitant the occupation is to allow a change. In chapter 2 the author will detail this history, along with the emergence of women into police work, and their issues involving their use of force. While the use of force is an inherent part of police work (Ross, 2002), it appears that excessive force has been a controversial and costly result (Spillar & Harrington, 2000). In chapter 2 the author will discuss studies that reveal the costs of excessive force. It will also be shown in chapter 2 that females te nd to be slower in enacting force than their male counterparts and according to an article published by the National Center for Women & Policing females are not as likely to be involved in excessive force claims as males (Harrington et al. 1998). While the re have been studies (Harrington, 1999, Spillar, 1991, Lonsway, 2000) that have shown the comparisons between male and female officers on the costs of excessive force, there appear to be no studies examining differences between male and female perceptions toward the use of force. According to a study conducted by the Feminist Majority Foundation and the National Center for Women and Policing (NCWP) there is a significant gender difference in the cost of police brutality (Lonsway, Moore, Harrington, Smeal, & Spillar, 2003). The director of the NCWP, Penny Harrington, in 2000 stated that “the new study shows that increasing women on the force holds the key for substantially decreasing police violence and its cost to taxpayers” (Smeal, Spillar, & Harrington, 2000). This was her response to the LAPD study by the Christopher Commission in which male officers were found to be liable for male officer payouts in cases of brutality and misconduct at a ratio of 23:1 to female officers (Lonsway et al. 2002). 2 The Ch ristopher Commission investigated the use of force in the LAPD following the videotaped beating of Rodney King in 1991. Among its’ conclusions, it reported that female officers were better equipped to peacefully resolve potentially violent situations. The evidence was obvious that male officers in the LAPD were involved in excessive force lawsuits at rates exceptionally higher than the female LAPD officers. The costs found to be associated with male officers use of force, and not female officers, should int rigue researchers to study the perceptions of the use of force and any existing gender differences in more detail. More evidence of this difference is seen in the following paragraph. In September 2000, Katherine Spillar, then national coordinator of the Feminist Majority Foundation, stated “the gender gap in police brutality lawsuits is striking”. From 1990 – 1999 the City of Los Angeles paid out $63.4 million in lawsuits resulting from excessive force, sexual assault and domestic violence by its male o fficers (Spillar & Harrington, 2000). During the same period only $2.8 million was paid out for its female officers for excessive force lawsuits since there were no female officers involved as defendants in sexual assault or domestic violence cases (Spilla r, 2000). While the lawsuit payout ratio is staggeringly close to 30:1, the ratio of male patrol officers to female patrol officers in Los Angeles for that period was only 4:1(Spillar, 2000). As demonstrated by the previous paragraph and the Rodney King case, these examples reveal a possible implication of the purpose of this study, implying at least a monetary advantage for agencies in determining if the perception toward the use of force for females is different than that of males. While much more resea rch would be necessary to determine a causal relationship between male and female officers perceptions toward force and their actions, this study will add to the knowledge base concerning those officers perceptions. 3 Since the use of force is what this stu dy centers its research
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