The University of Southern Mississippi The Aquila Digital Community Dissertations Fall 12-1-2012 Real Women? Gender and Race in Prime Time Police Shows Rondrek Juwayne Cowans University of Southern Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations Recommended Citation Cowans, Rondrek Juwayne, "Real Women? Gender and Race in Prime Time Police Shows" (2012). Dissertations. 611. https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations/611 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by The Aquila Digital Community. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of The Aquila Digital Community. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The University of Southern Mississippi REAL WOMEN? GENDER AND RACE IN PRIME TIME POLICE SHOWS by Rondrek Juwayne Cowans Abstract of a Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of The University of Southern Mississippi in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2012 ABSTRACT REAL WOMEN? GENDER AND RACE IN PRIME TIME POLICE SHOWS by Rondrek Juwayne Cowans December 2012 For the past 25 years, reality shows, in particular, police reality shows has figured prominently in American culture as a true representation of police/criminal interactions. This dissertation is a case study that examined the portrayal of African Americans as criminals on the police reality show entitled The Police Women of Cincinnati, Memphis, Dallas, Maricopa County (Phoenix, AZ) and Broward County (Ft. Lauderdale, FL). The cities were chosen because they represent the entire five seasons that the series has been on television. This particular police reality show was also chosen due to its mirror image of local and national television newscasts. In other words, they both convey stories of crimes being committed in society but one uses anchors and reporters while the other uses narratives from female police officers. The purpose of this study was to determine if African American are overrepresented as criminals on The Police Women of Cincinnati, Memphis, Dallas, Maricopa County and Broward County when compared to the aggregate crime data originating from the five aforementioned cities. A content analysis was conducted that compared the quantity and types of crimes being committed by African Americans on The Police Women of Cincinnati, Memphis, Dallas, Maricopa County and Broward County reality shows against the quantity and types of crimes committed by African Americans from the crime statistics from their respective cities. ii The Police Women of Cincinnati and Broward County season series were recorded over a five month period in 2010, while The Police Women of Maricopa County, Memphis and Dallas season series were purchased from The Learning Channel (TLC) Network in the summer of 2011. A content analysis consisted of all five seasons of The Police Women of Cincinnati, Memphis, Dallas, Maricopa County and Broward County. Each season consisted of eight weekly episodes which were one-hour each. Each one-hour episode contained eight crime segments in which four female police officers where shown conducting daily crime interactions with suspects twice per episode. The unit of analysis consisted of forty episodes multiplied by eight individual crime segments for a total of 320 crime segments. There were nine segments that did not pertain to crime segments, therefore they were not coded in the quantitative analysis of the study. Hence there were 311 crime segments that were analyzed for this study. As the study revealed, African Americans males were overrepresented as criminals in only one of the five cities analyzed (Maricopa County), when compared to aggregate crime data and were overrepresented as violent criminals in only one of the five cities that were analyzed (Dallas) when compared to aggregate crime data. Similarly, the study revealed that African American females were overrepresented as criminals in only one of the five cities analyzed (Dallas), when compared to aggregate crime data but were not overrepresented as violent criminals in any of the five cites when compared to aggregate crime data. In addition, the study revealed that African American males and females were shown committing violent crimes more frequently than White, Asian, Hispanic and Indian males and females that appeared on The Police Women of Cincinnati, Broward County, Maricopa County, Memphis and Dallas. The study also iii revealed that African American female police were more frequently involved in crime segments that involved African American suspects than white, Asian, Hispanic or Indian suspects. The qualitative data gives specific examples of how racial stereotypes are oftentimes formed from viewing television and a feminist perspective of female police officers. iv COPYRIGHT BY RONDREK JUWAYNE COWANS 2012 The University of Southern Mississippi REAL WOMEN? GENDER AND RACE IN PRIME TIME POLICE SHOWS by Rondrek Juwayne Cowans A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of The University of Southern Mississippi in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Approved: Dr. Kim LeDuff Director Dr. Christopher Campbell Dr. Cheryl Jenkins Dr. Fei Xue Dr. Dave Davies ____________________________________ Dean of the Graduate School December 2012 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I have been given the greatest gift of all from my late mother and grandmother, Marvis Cowans and Rosena Bates who made the tremendous sacrifices of sharecropping, domestic labor and studying with only a coal oiled lamp, so that I may have the opportunity to complete the highest level of education that is set before man. It was through my grandmother’s hard work in the sweltering hot Louisiana fields and painstaking domestic work in the “Garden District” of Baton Rouge’s affluent homes and my mother’s conscious decision to break the cycle of sharecropping and domestic work and become the first person to graduate from college in our family, that has allowed me to accomplish my goal of earning a Ph.D. from the University of Southern Mississippi. And for this I shall forever be grateful to them. I also want to thank my sister Rozica Cowans White and close friends who have stuck by my side and supported me in my quest to further my education. And to Dr. Kim LeDuff, who has been an absolute delight to have both as an instructor in class, and as my advisor on my dissertation. Dr. LeDuff’s continuous interest, keen knowledge, and availability propelled me to progress through this undertaking. Without her unwavering support, I would not have made the progress I did. I am very thankful to Dr. LeDuff for her insight and expertise in the field of race, gender and media and her willingness to work with me to the end. A big thank you also goes out to my committee members Dr. Christopher Campbell, who taught me the importance of critical and cultural theory and how it impacts our society, Dr. Fei Xue, who taught me the essence of advertising, Dr. Cheryl Jenkins, who taught me a holistic perception of media history and Dr. Dave Davies, who not only got a pound of flesh out of me, but taught me how to conduct scholarly historical research. Thank you all. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………………….…...ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS….………………………………………………………….….v LIST OF TABLES …………………………………………..…………………............viii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………...……1 Problem Statement Significance of the Study II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE………………………………..6 History of Reality Shows Why People Watch Reality Shows Portrayals of African Americans in the Media Cultivation Theory Feminist Studies Female Police Officers Research Questions III. METHODOLOGY………………………………………………………38 Study Sites Population of the Study Coding Reliability Statistical Analysis Answering Research Questions Qualitative Analysis IV. QUANTITATIVE RESULTS…………………………………………...54 V. QUALITATIVE RESULTS……………………………………………..76 Show Opening Guilty By Association A Softer Side VI. Discussion…………………………………………………………...….102 Conclusion Limitations vi APPENDIXES………………………………………………………………………….117 REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………………125 vii LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Racial and Population Demographics of Cincinnati, Broward County, Maricopa County, Memphis and Dallas…………………………………………………….44 2. Breakdown of Crime Segments from the Five Seasons of The Police Women of Cincinnati, Broward County, Maricopa County, Memphis and Dallas series…..46 3. Number of Crime Segments from The Police Women of Cincinnati, Broward County, Maricopa County, Memphis and Dallas Included in the Study...……....54 4. Number of Crime Segments from The Police Women of Cincinnati, Broward County, Maricopa County, Memphis and Dallas Involving Black Males……….55 5. Number of Crime Segments from The Police Women of Cincinnati, Broward County, Maricopa County, Memphis and Dallas Involving Black Males Compared to Aggregate Crime Data from Cincinnati, Broward County, Maricopa County, Memphis and Dallas Police Departments……………………………....56 6. Percentage Comparisons Between Crimes Committed by Black Males on The Police Women of Cincinnati, Broward County, Maricopa County, Memphis and Dallas Compared to Crime Data from Cincinnati, Broward County, Maricopa County, Memphis and Dallas Police Departments……………………………....57 7. Number of Crime Segments from The Police Women of Cincinnati, Broward County, Maricopa County, Memphis and Dallas Involving Black Females….....58 8. Number of Crime Segments from The Police Women of Cincinnati, Broward County,