A Comparison of Police Use of Force by Male and Female Officers in Canada: Rates, Modalities, Effectiveness, and Injuries

• Published date: 01 May 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00938548241227551
• Author: Jennifer Sheppard,Ariane-Jade Khanizadeh,Simon Baldwin,Craig Bennell
• Date: 01 May 2024

CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND BEHAVIOR, 2024, Vol. 51, No. 5, May 2024, 743 –767.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/00938548241227551

Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions

© 2024 International Association for Correctional and Forensic Psychology

743

A COMPARISON OF POLICE USE OF FORCE BY

MALE AND FEMALE OFFICERS IN CANADA

Rates, Modalities, Effectiveness, and Injuries

JENNIFER SHEPPARD

ARIANE-JADE KHANIZADEH

SIMON BALDWIN

CRAIG BENNELL

Carleton University

Research has reported inconsistent findings with respect to how female and male police officers use force. This study examined

this issue in a Canadian context. Use of force data over 9 years were collected from a large Canadian police agency. The results

demonstrated that, overall, female officers used force less frequently than male officers relative to the number of female and

male officers within the participating police agency. Female officers had lower odds of using physical control “hard” options

(e.g., stuns and strikes) and higher odds of using intermediate weapons (e.g., conducted energy weapon) compared with male

officers. Female officers also generally reported less effectiveness, more injuries to themselves, and fewer injuries to subjects

related to their use of force compared with male officers. Literature on police use of force and social role theory are used to

help explain the findings, and recommendations for improving outcomes in police–public interactions are suggested.

Keywords: police; use of force; women; law enforcement; gender differences

Policing has traditionally been, and largely remains, a male-dominated profession with a

masculine subculture (Bikos, 2016; Rabe-Hemp, 2008b). In the past, police agencies

typically allowed only men to be officers and did not invite women to join their ranks (e.g.,

P. B. Hoffman & Hickey, 2005; Lonsway et al., 2003). For example, it was not until 1974

that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), Canada’s national police service, estab-

lished its first troop of female officers (RCMP, 2016). In an attempt to modernize and create

diversity within their ranks, many Canadian police agencies have prioritized hiring more

female police officers (e.g., Edmonton Police Service, 2019; RCMP, 2013; Toronto Police

Service, 2019). However, women still only account for approximately 21% of officers in

Canada (Conor, 2018).1

AUTHORS’ NOTE: The views expressed in the submitted article are the authors’, and not an official position

of Carleton University or the participating law enforcement agency.Correspondence concerning this article

should be addressed to Ariane-Jade Khanizadeh, Department of Psychology, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel

By Dr, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1S 5B6; e-mail: ariane.khanizadeh@carleton.ca.

1227551CJBXXX10.1177/00938548241227551Criminal Justice and BehaviorSheppard et al. / Police Use of Force by Female and Male Officers

research-article2024

744 CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND BEHAVIOR

The growing number of female police officers could potentially affect various aspects of

policing, including police use of force (UoF). Often considered as the “gentler” or “weaker”

sex (Jensen, 2012), female officers are regularly assumed to be less likely than male officers

to use force and more likely to use lower levels of force to control situations. Some com-

mentators and researchers have gone so far as to speculate that hiring more female police

officers will reduce police UoF (Gerster, 2019), including lethal force (Carmichael & Kent,

2015), and decrease the prevalence of excessive force (Bagri, 2017). If such assumptions

are true, not only would a reduction in the UoF have the potential to prevent citizen injuries

and deaths, and the trauma associated with these incidents for the victim’s family, the com-

munity, and the officers involved (Artwohl & Christensen, 2019; Outland et al., 2022), but

reductions in the UoF would also likely have a positive impact on the degree to which the

public trusts the police, has confidence in them, and views them as a legitimate source of

state authority (Pickering & Klinger, 2016; Wood et al., 2020).

Given the bold claims being made by some that female officers will use force less fre-

quently, and will use lower levels of force, there is a need to rigorously study the relation-

ship between officer sex and the UoF. Some research has already examined this issue, but

the available research is not extensive, produces mixed results, and relies mostly on

American data. The goal of this study was to contribute to this body of research by identify-

ing and describing trends from UoF encounters involving Canadian police officers, to deter-

mine if officer sex influences whether and how force is used, and the impact of that force in

terms of its effectiveness and resulting injuries. The Canadian focus of our study is impor-

tant because American research may not generalize to Canada. Not only do officer demo-

graphics differ between the two countries, with female officers making up a larger proportion

of the police population in Canada (Conor, 2018; Hyland & Davis, 2019), but UoF rates are

also lower in Canada (Baldwin et al., 2022; Hickman et al., 2008), as are some of the dan-

gers that Canadian police officers encounter (e.g., due to rates of gun ownership; Department

of Justice Canada, 2022). These differences may influence the amount and type of force

officers use, and its impact.

Before describing this study, a literature review will be presented. The review will begin

with a general overview of UoF research to make it clear how this study is situated in the

broader UoF literature. We will then propose a theoretical framework, which draws on

social role theory, to explain why officer sex might be related to the UoF. Social role theory

will help us interpret research findings related to the UoF by male and female police officers

and to make sense of common explanations for potential sex differences in the UoF.

POLICE UOF

Police officers in the United States and Canada have the authority to use force. In Canada,

that authority is laid out in Section 25 of the Criminal Code (1985), which states that police

officers who are acting on reasonable grounds are authorized to use as much force as neces-

sary to enforce the law. Fortunately, in both countries, force is rarely used by police officers

during interactions with the public. While it is hard to derive accurate estimates, largely

because high-quality data are difficult to access (Bennell et al., 2022), most police–public

interactions in the United States and Canada do not involve the UoF. In the United States,

for example, data from the Police-Public Contact Survey and the Survey of Inmates in

Local Jails were used by Hickman et al. (2008) to estimate rates of nonlethal force. They