Lavender and Blue: Attitudes About Homosexuality and Behavior Toward Lesbians and Gay Men Among Police Officers

• NCJ Number: 196266
• Journal: Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice Volume: 18 Issue: 3 Dated: August 2002 Pages: 302-328
• Author(s): Mary Bernstein; Constance Kostelac
• Date Published: August 2002
• Length: 27 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study used original survey data to examine the relationship between attitudes and behavior toward lesbians and gays among subsets of police officers.

Abstract

The study drew from a larger project that examined antigay attitudes and behavior among sworn police officers and civilian police employees of an anonymous medium-size police department in the Southwest United States. The Workplace Environment Survey, developed by one of the authors of this article, was designed to assess a number of factors that influenced the experiences of officers and civilian employees on the job. Out of the 886 surveys distributed to sworn officers, 249 were returned (28-percent response rate). Of the 222 heterosexual sworn officers included in the sample, the majority were male (82 percent), with approximately 77 percent of the respondents indicating they were married. The largest percentage of sworn officers were white (79 percent), with approximately 12 percent Hispanic, and 9 percent "other." On the one hand, the findings from the survey showed little evidence of a direct relationship between general attitudes toward gays and lesbians and actual discriminatory behavior toward gays and lesbians; on the other hand, the findings suggest that the relationship between attitudes and behavior is quite strong when heterosexism is specified more clearly in terms of the sociological dimensions of prejudice, acceptance of negative stereotypes, and feelings of in-group superiority. Police officers themselves suggest that the prospects for gays and lesbians to be fairly treated by the justice system are not good; between 30 percent and 40 percent indicated that gays and lesbians would not be treated the same or would not be taken as seriously as heterosexuals. The implications are that hate crimes will continue to go unreported by gays and lesbians, and they will continue to be easy targets for victimization. 7 tables, 7 notes, and 63 references