Perceived Gender Differences in Policing

Abstract

Abstract Psychology students (N = 379) served as mock jurors for a hypothetical civil case where an officer responds to a possible crime and is subsequently charged with misconduct in a civil lawsuit. The research employed a between-subjects design using six scenarios varying officer gender, participant gender, death penalty attitude, and crime the officer responds to (domestic violence, shoplifting, noisy party). The officer is accused of failing to protect the domestic violence victim, false arrest of the shoplifting suspect, and excessive force while arresting the noisy party host. Outcome measures included probability of guilt, verdict, damages, and ratings of the officer's professionalism. Results supported the hypothesis that participants' evaluations of the officer would vary according to the perceived “fit” between officer gender and type of crime. The findings suggest that public perceptions of police officers reflect gender stereotyped expectations, and thus female officers have a qualitatively different impact than male officers.