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Gender In Law Enforcement Women

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Gender, Women and the Criminal Justice System

The ever-changing role of women working in a law enforcement capacity is one that has been debated, experimented with and implemented in various portions for over a century. As always, with the change in procedure comes the specific challenges that will ultimately have to be faced as agencies decide where to place women within their department so that they can be most effective. On the same token, agencies are also having to deal with the various challenges that come when diversity is added to the mixture. Although the United States has been quite diverse for over a century, it is always a topic that needs to be addressed and effectively dealt with so that the overall mission can be successful. In the realm of law enforcement, the tactics used by police officers nation-wide have generally been the same over the years with the exception of major events such as the attacks of September 11th and the school shootings. In those …show more content…
Anderson (2015) writes, “For starters, women officers universally engage with the community in a manner that’s different from the approach men typically take. We tend to employ alternate means to resolve conflict and work to diffuse volatile situations through verbal communication” (p. 1). In this context, one may find it easier to understand when the verbiage is coming from a female. Anderson herself, worked as an agent in the FBI for over 25 years even after being told at the age of 11 by an agent that girls could not be in the FBI. Furthermore, this quote further solidifies the alternate and more broadening approach that woman take to the role of law enforcement. It provides police departments and agencies with an additional skill set that is not easily taught to a man who is genetically more aggressive in situations than a woman

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