“Police Sexual Violence: A Study of Policewomen as Victims”

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/10986111211058032
• Published date: 01 March 2023
• Date: 01 March 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Police Quarterly

2023, Vol. 26(1) 3–23

© The Author(s) 2022

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DOI: 10.1177/10986111211058032

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“Police Sexual Violence: A

Study of Policewomen as

Victims”

Angela Sands

1

, Laurel Westerman

2

, Jenna Prochnau

2

, and

Henry Blankenau

2

Abstract

Police sexual violence (PSV) is an understudied but critically important topic in police

research. This paper uncovers and examines an extremely hidden form of PSV: sexual

assaults of female police off‌icers by male police off‌icers. Our qualitative analysis reveals

how male police off‌icers of widely varying ranks and years of experience sexually

assault female police off‌icers. Victims reported that the number of male police off‌icers

who sexually assault female police off‌icers is small; however, victims reported that

these off‌icers are often serial offenders who also assault professional staff and citizens.

Victims identif‌ied available investigative processes and reporting protocols, but they

were afraid to report incidents due to concerns about potential retaliation from

administrators and co-workers, limited career advancement or termination, being

negatively viewed by co-workers, and simply not being believed. Victims believed that

certain hypermasculine aspects of their agency and profession's culture allowed acts of

PSV to happen, go unreported, and re-occur. We make several recommendations for

how police administrators can address and prevent PSV in their agencies.

Keywords

police sexual violence, culture, hypermasculinity

1

University of Nebraska-Omaha, Omaha, NE, USA

2

University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA

Corresponding Author:

Angela Sands, College of Public Affairs and Community Service, University of Nebraska-Omaha, 218 CPACS,

6001 Dodge Street, Omaha, NE 68182, USA.

Email: aj33sands@gmail.com

Introduction

Historically, the policing profession and police culture have excluded, reluctantly

incorporated, and marginalized women (Lee-Sammons, 1996;Pogrebin et al., 2000).

There are varying degrees to which individual police departments have inhibited female

participation, but in general, women have traditionally not been able to access the same

positions, social networks, and career trajectories in the policing profession as men.

Moreover, studies have demonstrated how the hypermasculine subculture within law

enforcement can control, isolate, and victimize policewomen, often through sexual

misconduct or abuse (Pogrebin et al., 2000;Shjarback & Todak, 2019;Shelley et al.,

2011). Although we recognize that police culture is not monolithic (Reiner, 1992), we

argue that sexism and misogyny remain dominant features of a hypermasculine

subculture that continues to exclude, oppress, and victimize female police off‌icers in

many police departments (Prokos & Padavic, 2002;Maher, 2010). As evidence, this

paper describes an extreme form of misogyny within the profession heretofore largely

unaddressed in police research: male police off‌icers sexually assaulting female police

off‌icers.

Literature Review

Brief History of Women in Policing

The introduction of women into policing is inextricably linked with efforts to reduce

and prevent sexual assaults. In the United States, women’s entry into the police force

began in the mid-19th century with the appointment of prison matrons to oversee

detained women and juveniles in several cities’prisons (Higgins, 1951). Their hiring

was generally in response to public demands, rather than department-driven initiatives,

to protect female inmates from sexual abuse by male inmates and male wardens. In New

York City, prison matrons were installed over the objections of the Men’s Prison

Association, which argued that female matrons were physically unable to subdue

potentially violent female prisoners (Schulz, 1989). It was not until the early 20th

century that women moved beyond custodial duties and began acting as law en-

forcement off‌icers. Several of the same groups that had advocated for the hiring of

prison matrons later lobbied for the hiring of policewomen (Schulz, 1989). Many early

women in law enforcement had experience as social workers prior to assuming patrol

duties. They were organized into single-sex Women’s Bureaus within local police

departments and focused their social service intervention efforts on at-risk women and

juvenile delinquents (Higgins, 1951).

After decades of minimal increases, the number of women in the police force grew

steadily after the 1970s. Since then, their duties have generally been the same as male

off‌icers. In 1970, 2% of all police off‌icers were women compared to 9% of all police

off‌icers in 1991 (Price, 1996). Around 2007, this percentage reached 12% nationwide

and has since plateaued (Reaves, 2015). However, several large urban departments

4Police Quarterly 26(1)