NCJ Number
153649
Journal
Journal of Criminal Justice Education Volume: 5 Issue: 2 Dated: (Fall 1994) Pages: 229-239
Date Published
1994
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This study compares criminal justice students' attitudes toward female police officers with those reported by Golden (1981), the most recent author to study this topic.
Abstract
The setting for this study was a rural residential State university in the northeast. The authors collected data through a self-administered questionnaire. One section consisted of attitudinal items measured on a Likert-type scale. Most of the items were identical to those used by Golden (1981) in her study of students' attitudes toward women in law enforcement. Another section, which consisted of demographic items, included the student's sex, class standing, and major. The population from which the sample was derived consisted of undergraduate students attending classes during the spring 1992 semester. A total of 811 questionnaires were useable. The comparison of findings between the two studies show two distinct trends. At the aggregate or global level, support for females in law enforcement has shown little change among male criminal justice students during the past decade. The overall average for the eight items revealed that almost half continue to harbor negative attitudes towards women as police officers and, by implication, continue to believe that policing is a task probably best left to men. Although upperclassmen continue to be more positive toward policewomen than their underclass counterparts, the level of support among the former in both studies is still only slightly greater than a majority. The authors draw implications of the findings for policing and for education. 16 references