NCJ Number
99508
Date Published
1985
Length
22 pages
Annotation
Questionnaires and interviews formed the basis of an analysis of the attitudes of 15 Louisiana police officers towards feminism, female offenders, and female crime patterns.
Abstract
The subjects had at least 5 years of experience in rural or urban policing in Louisiana and were attending a training program in the spring of 1978. The questionnaire had 34 items and used a Likert scale to determine the respondents' levels of agreement with statements regarding the occupational, domestic, and social roles of women. The interviews probed more deeply into issues addressed in the questionnaire and into topics related to female crime. The questionnaires made quantitative analysis possible, while the interview results were treated more more subjectively. The officers expressed more support for liberated domestic roles for women than for liberated occupational or social roles. The skepticism regarding women's ability to equal men's performance on patrol apparently related to perceptions of differential physical and psychological characteristics. The 14 male subjects and the 1 female subject both noted this view, with the woman noting fellow officers' initial reluctance to acknowledge her competence. The majority of police officers noted changing patterns of female criminality, most commonly citing the expansion of drug use and economic factors. Officers generally regarded females as accomplices rather than perpetrators in traditionally male crimes like burglary and robbery. They also doubted the influence of the women's movement on female felons and acknowledged that their past use of discretionary powers in arrest may have protected some female felons. Data tables, 41 references, and appendixes presenting the study instrument and criteria for establishing traditional and liberated views are included.