Recruiting Women and Minorities into Law Enforcement

Answer 1

Recruiting Women and Minorities into Law Enforcement

The criminal justice system has traditionally been a male dominated industry. Moreover, there has been a tendency of treating women and other minorities with prejudice. As such, the recruitment of women and other minority groups has become such a big issue in the present time. Through numerous researches, it has proven that a good number of agencies lack the appropriate number of blacks and women working in their justice department, thus raising the alarm as to why this is actually the case. Hence, this paper will delve into the efforts of recruiting women and other minority groups into law enforcement offices.

Throughout the policing history, women have had it rough when it comes to being included and made part of the industry. For a very long time, women have become victims of inequality in work environments. During the administration of President Nixon, the federal government begun the idea of pushing employers to bring on board more women than before, and other minority groups, while at the same time, tracking the progress of these employers. It would be prudent to note that in 1969, an executive order was passed by the president stating that any federal office of the government could no longer use sex or gender as a basis for not employing a qualified individual (Jordan et al., 2009).

Occupational segregation in the work place had continuously, over history, acted as the force that impeded on the daily lives of women who desired and deserved to work in the justice system. This not only eliminated the several chances of women to capitalize on the changing times, but it also denied most of the women, and members of the minority groups their civil rights. This is because, some women were deemed not fit enough in comparison to men, as they did not possess some masculine attributes that were requirements in most of the job descriptions. Over the next decade, after the passing of the law by President Nixon, a 2.1% increase in women involvement in the law enforcement job industry was experienced, but still deemed to little considering the number of male counterparts within the same industry (Wilson et al., 2016). It would be prudent to note that this percentage only represents the number of women that make up the larger law enforcement agencies across the nation. On the flipside, the actual number of sworn in females in smaller agencies is significantly lower despite the fact that women comprise of almost half of the entire labor force.

In the past, and in so many other countries, it used to be that women’s places was either at home, or in an event they were to be in a professional career then it would be as a nurse, teacher or in any clerical positions. As such, only a small number of women were able to work as correctional officers. Moreover, most of their assignments were limited to tasks that did not require much muscle work. The integration of women into the law enforcement department was considered a big leap of faith, as most people within the time believed that women could contribute little to nothing when stepping in to the system. A point to note is that in many communities young ladies do not have an opportunity to see female officers as their role models, because few to none exist in most cultures. For this reason, most women had not for a long time considered becoming a member of the law enforcement system. The employment opportunity for the female law enforcement agents are wide. This is because the field itself is a big one that presents numerous opportunities to people of all gender and groups regardless if they are minority or not.

One of the major gender imbalance, experienced today in the law enforcement departments across the country come as a result of lack of minorities in the enforcement units. The issue at hand has instigated an increase in violence against women in different areas across numerous cities and states in the United States. Moreover, a significant amount of tension is noticeable within different departments at the law enforcement sections. In the present day, the main reason for not hiring women is because, like in the olden days, they are still considered weak, thus facing a significant amount of psychological pressure that makes it hard for them to balance their careers and their family life. The recruitment of more male police officers in to the system resulted in an increase in domestic violence as more male officers are reluctant to respond to such calls. Moreover, more male officers use excessive force, which leads to injuries and loss of lives, which would not be the case if more women were in the system (Whetstone et al., 2006). This type of gender imbalance in the law enforcement department has led to social inequality, which goes ahead to dictate that there should be some form of equality between the two genders.

In as much as more women would want to join the law enforcement units in the United States, still only a few from the lot would desire to join if given an opportunity. Additionally, among African American women, the level of participation in the recruitment process, as well as joining the police force has significantly become low. As per the police officers data in the United States, over 80% of the force is composed of male gender, while less than 20% of the same is composed of female (Whetstone et al., 2006). Over the last two decades women have been shown to accept a career in policing. Nonetheless, researches have been conducted to try and understand reasons as to why most women still opt out of the career in policing, different factors have been revealed. Women have been constantly encountered with negative attitude from men. As such, most of the men expect women to fail in their quest to become recognized police officers, believing that women do not possess the capacity and capability in regards to their emotional wellbeing, to handle the job at hand. This goes ahead to prove that women experience a lot of pressure and resistance from the male police officers and other member of the law enforcement unit, with the male counterparts openly displaying their negative attitudes towards women.

Women experienced an increase in representation in the law enforcement units significantly during the 80s and the 90s.Nonetheless, in as much as the growth is still being experienced, the curve does not represent the desired or projected growth curve in regards to women and minority groups recruitment into the unit. This goes ahead to show that women as still being underrepresented in the law enforcement. One of the main reasons for this is the increase in sexual harassment cases in the work place. Through a survey conducted in different law enforcement units across the country, it suggested that at least 77% of women in the policing industry have experienced a form of sexual harassment in the work place (Gibbs, 2019). This percentage is large, and very concerning.