NCJ Number
170850
Journal
Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice Volume: 14 Issue: 2 Dated: (May 1998) Pages: 156-172
Date Published
1998
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This article examines the contradictions inherent in the conflict between traditional policing styles and beliefs and alternative policing strategies such as community policing.
Abstract
Paramilitary "masculine" police organizations are often viewed as a site for socially constructed gendered action. Policing emphasizes gendered divisions of labor and the construction of different police images for male and female officers. Women police officers' domain is frequently helping runaway, lost or abused children, or prostitutes, or filling stereotypically female clerical roles. The female voice of justice stresses the values of care, connection, and relational concerns -- values that have been used to characterize recent police reforms that adopt a more community-oriented role for police. This conceptual article explores the contradictions inherent in the conflict between traditional policing styles and beliefs and alternative policing strategies such as community policing. The article also discusses the strategies used in community policing to personalize law enforcement and the implications for these alternative philosophies and practices in light of gendered action. Table, notes, references