Seeing Gender in Policing: Uniforms and Perceived Aggression

Abstract

Policing has historically been conceptualized as a masculine and male-dominated profession. As part of the present research, we test two competing hypotheses about the effects of officer gender on citizens’ (N = 251) perceptions of officer aggression. Our results reveal that women are perceived as less aggressive than men when wearing civilian clothes, but similarly aggressive as men when wearing their police uniform. By experimentally testing the salience of policing versus gender cues on judgments of officers, we provide insight into the gendered dynamics of policing and complement existing research in the fields of criminology and psychology.

Keywords:

• Aggression
• gender
• perceptions of police
• policing
• stereotypes
• uniforms

Notes

1 Although we analyze a total of 2,008 photograph ratings when summing across all of our proportion tests, the dependent variables for each test are calculated via an N of 502 photograph ratings.

2 Due to the very low number of participants who self-identified as other gender (2), we conducted our models with and without these participants included. The results remained effectively unchanged and so we retained their data for the analyses. Participants who self-identified as American Indian and Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, or two or more races were also grouped into the other race category for analytic purposes due to their low numbers.

3 Although as we note at the outset of our article, the masculinized stereotypes of policing may also impact some men as well. Evaluating this specific dynamic, however, fell outside the scope of the present research.