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Abstract
Utilizing survey data collected from 127 male Bosnian police officers, this study examines the impact attitudes toward women, individual characteristics, and work experiences have on officers’ perceptions of their female colleagues. It is hypothesized that officers who hold more traditional, patriarchal attitudes toward women will view females as incapable of effectively carrying out police work, regardless of their own work experiences, or demographic characteristics. Results suggest that a majority of Bosnian policemen believe that women are equally as effective as men in all aspects of policing, however, many still cling to stereotypical views of policing and continue to view female officers negatively.
Notes
1. What research that does exist has generally explored Bosnian police officers’ attitudes and/or experiences related to police corruption (Datzer, Muratbegović, Maljević, & Budimlić, Citation2006; Ivković & Shelley, Citation2005, Citation2008), community policing (Deljkić & Lucić-Catić, Citation2010; Vejnović & Lalić, Citation2005), and domestic violence (Muftić & Cruze, Citationin press).
2. The post-war police forces were largely divided by ethnicity (Bosniak, Croat, and Serb). Subsequently, each police force had its own separate jurisdiction. While the Bosniak and Croat police forces have since merged (at least by name), the police in the Republika Srpska have refused efforts to integrate with the Federation. To further complicate matters, in addition to the law enforcement agencies operating at the state level (Bosniak-Croat Federation, Republika Srpska, Brčko District, Border Police, and SIPA), each canton within the Federation has a separate law enforcement agency (10 total cantons).
3. It should be noted that females are often recruited to work in areas where they are also an ethnic minority.
4. Gender integration has also been supported at the state level because Bosnia and Herzegovina’s chances of European Union membership depend on, among other things, the quality (and diversity) of the police institution. As such, gender integration has been hyped as a necessary component of professionalizing Bosnian’s police force.
5. Of recent, several cantons have implemented ‘procedures’ for taking into consideration the gender of ‘equally qualified’ candidates in the hiring process (AGE, Citation2010).
6. Created in 2002, SIPA is the first police agency in BiH with full authority across the entire Bosnian territory. SIPA’s responsibilities include prevention, investigation of criminal offenses, detection, protection of VIPs and buildings, and protection of witnesses (http://www.sipa.gov.ba/en/onama.php).
7. This is a slightly higher percentage than the total proportion of female officers among SIPA forces. According to a 2009 report, females comprised 6.4% of SIPA officers (N = 74; AGE, Citation2010).
8. The original questionnaire contains 38 questions. For the purposes of this study, only the questions pertaining to attitudes about female police officers were used. The remaining 17 questions, which pertain to attitudes toward females in general, were excluded as the short version of the AWS (Spence et al., Citation1973), a more reliable measure of gender attitudes, was employed instead.
9. The aim of UNSCR 1325 is to improve national security. In furtherance of this goal, among other key provisions, the plan focuses on increasing women in decision-making roles and increasing women’s participation in the police and military forces (AGE, Citation2010, p. 12).