Improving Policing for Women: The Way Forward (From Women, Policing, and Male Violence: International Perspectives, P 185-201, 1989, Jalna Hanmer, Jill Radford, et al., eds. -- See NCJ-127406)

• NCJ Number: 127414
• Author(s): J Hanmer; J Radford; E A Stanko
• Date Published: 1989
• Length: 17 pages
• Sale Source: Routledge
• Publication Type: Research (Theoretical)
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom

Annotation

Police expectations about problem-solving need to be fundamentally changed when policing men's violence.

Abstract

The development of a police policy that aims to offer assistance to women must include sensitivity, flexibility, and a respect for her autonomy so that she has some control over the process and outcome of intervention. The operation of presumptive arrest policy points to the problems that arise when introducing a reform without taking into consideration the need for essential policing skills and attitudes. Presumptive arrest is procedurally limited; it can only be used in relation to an immediate event and does not involve additional resources to secure women's safety. Further, presumptive arrest policies seem to be implemented in a contradictory manner; The success or failure of the policy is linked to police notions of successful intervention which are interwoven with a masculinist world view. The issues about the nature of policing in general and the role of the police in societies divided by gender, race, and economic circumstances are more complex than perceived in the so-called rationality of public policy.