...I feel there are many benefits to having representation of females and minorities in law enforcement. Times are charging and law enforcement is an ever changing profession. Statistics from the Bureau of Justice show there has been an increase of female and minorities being hired in law enforcement and the number continue to rise every year. I feel as law enforcement continues to expand we must too also be understanding and accommodating of our communities in which we work. A perfect example of this topic would be our local advocacy center. Our advocacy center has realized the need for cultural expansion and accommodation. They have hired and trained different gender, race, and cultural ethnic background forensic interviewers to better suit...
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...Women and Minorities in Law Enforcement . Throughout policing history women and minorities have played roles in the equality opportunities in the workplace legislation. During the Nixon Administration the federal government began to push employers to make a "good faith effort" to employ women and minorities and to track their progress. In 1969 the act “Executive Order” was passed by President Nixon which stated that the federal government could not use sex as a requirement for hiring which changed policing within the Federal Bureau of Investigations and municipal police departments. In 1972 the act “Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act” prohibited employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, or sex (Grant & Terry, 2008). Before these acts were enforced, it was nearly impossible for women and minorities to get a job in policing. To improve and enhance the police community relations in minority communities, it was important to increase minority police officers in the law enforcement. Minority police officers have increased in modern times due to immigration and having an officer that can speak other languages has proven to be quiet useful to police departments. The increase of policewomen officers was important to improve police community relations in the communities after the civil rights movement. During World War II the number of women in the police force also increased (Grant & Terry, 2008). This role of women and minorities has affected modern...
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...cCheckpoint: Women and the Minorities in Law Enforcement Response In earlier times, women were pretty much compared to African-American men and minorities. Women needed much higher qualifications than the white men did to become police officers. Becoming a police officer was always looked at as a masculine job and was looked down on if a woman wanted to become a police officer; women never had the right to do what men did. So if a woman did end up getting the job they had limited duties, they were not permitted to advance beyond certain ranks and were rarely considered for special assignments unless their race was viewed as helpful for particular types of cases. Women police officers have helped police agencies across the world in a few ways. Sometimes there may be specific cases where a person would rather speak to a female officer than a male officer, they feel more comfortable telling a women officer what happened to them, or they feel safer. There are just many ways a women police officer can help out, men can help out too, but we need women in policing agencies these days. The employment of ethnic minorities along with women has greatly increased over the years, along with laws and different statistics. In the beginning it was hard for women and other ethnic minorities to become employed with a police department there were the obvious obstacles they have always faced with not meeting “requirements” to be employed. With time this has changed along with the other obvious...
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...turned the legal system against minorities. Men that were ready to become their own kings founded this nation on institutions that suppressed social classes beneath them. The common trait that could separate these bureaucrats from the work force was their race. This was simply the seed of white privilege in the United States. Flourishing ever since attributes of white privilege has found favoritism in law officers and legal professionals of today. History has proven over time that laws are put in place to keep the powerful in power. Power holds it value in property. Once slavery was abolished laws all over the nation were put in place to insure that whites remained in control. At the time the main thing that divided whites from blacks was citizenship. The key component to being a citizen is the right to vote. Jim Crow laws required that to be a citizen you had to own property. These laws also made it impossible to...
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...number of police officers employed has increased, public scrutiny has as well. The police employment practices have affected the publics’ perception of the police because of the factors involved as well as the desire to seek employment in law enforcement. The paper below will describe some of the factors involved with race and ethnicity when seeking police careers. Diversity among the law enforcement was limited until several years ago. A significant positive change has been seen in the perceptions of minorities within the employment of law enforcement. This helps to redress the historic workplace inequity by having police forces better reflect ethnic constituency of society (Perrott, 1999). However, minorities are still more likely to suffer inequalities. These inequalities are shaped by structural constraints that include childhood and adult poverty, unemployment, inadequate health care, and lack of economic and education opportunities (Smith, 2009). Minorities are also placed at the bottom of the social class. Because of these inequalities, employment with the police department has been difficult to achieve as some of these inequalities cannot be overcome by the already existing police. This in turn creates racially disparate outcomes. Minority recruitment is an essential component of the police and community relationship. Given the fact that the majority of police officers are White, the experience tends to be of the White norms, the White values, and the White beliefs. This...
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...as other minority groups. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, racial and ethnic minorities in state and local agencies made up 23.6 percent of full-time sworn personnel in 2003, up from 14.6 percent in 1987. Women accounted for 11.3 percent of officers in 2003 up from 7.6 percent in 1987. While the numbers are increasing, the profession continues to seek greater representation of women and minorities in its ranks, and many agencies are actively and aggressively recruiting these demographics. For many agencies, particularly those serving large immigrant communities, the need for racial and ethnic minorities extends far beyond traditional groups. Furthermore, as agencies look for officers who mirror their communities, they are also extending their definitions of diversity. From this perspective, diversity can include religion, sexual orientation, age, family background or occupation, and even neighborhood or high school. Law enforcement requires a unique blend of traits and characteristics. Some of these include •empathy •effective communication •compassion •intelligence, and •the ability to relate to people on a personal level. These are traits anyone can bring to the table regardless of gender, ethnic heritage, or background. Law enforcement is a field that respects and encourages individuality. Being a member of a minority group will not limit your ability to become a law enforcement officer or your chances of career success. Law enforcement is a field...
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...Diversity in Law Enforcement MAJ-660 Across the United States there are many challenges among law enforcement agencies when it comes to hiring the most qualified candidates and also those candidates that come from racial/ethnic minorities and female applicants. Having diversity within a law enforcement agency is critical. Bringing cultural understandings and native language skills to the force, minorities’ play a key role for success when the officers are called to help those groups of individuals. “In short, the police may be seen more legitimate and may be better able to partner with community organizations in fighting crime if they more closely resemble and identify with the communities they serve” (Raganella and White, 2004; Scivner, 2006). Due to the higher standards that most of the law enforcement agencies require, there are many individuals that would make outstanding police officers, but do not meet many of the requirements such as a college education. However, there are many other circumstances that can attribute to the lower number of minorities and women in law enforcement. One of the biggest issues with recruitment of racial/ethnic minorities and women basically boils down to “an insufficient number of these groups simply not applying for the job” (Scivner, 2006). According to Ravens 2010, “lack of awareness suggests a deficiency in outreach actions and events; that is, there is not enough recruitment in areas where demographics...
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...Overall Social Interaction of the Gay Community, has Law Enforcement Adapted to Modern Times in Addressing Their Needs Associated with Hate Crimes? Leitha Powell Diversity Issues Professor Thomas September 9, 2014 Before the creation of the first modern police department founded by Sir Robert Peel of England, the Metropolitan Police of London it was the duty of every able body person to contribute to the policing of their community. People were more trusting of the “police” because essentially they were neighbors looking out for one another so there was a general harmony within the community. Sometime during the early part of 20th century formal police agencies were created in the United States with this came the breakdown of interaction between different communities and police for instance, minorities and the gay community. Throughout this country history, there has always been discontentment and strife between the minority communities and law enforcement in the United States which is still an imperative issue today. This problem started with execution of slave patrols by the legislature when they passed An Act for Establishing and Regulating of Patrols. Which were a group of white men not exceeding seven who were hired to prevent slave insurrection, enforce and discipline slaves; they policed slaves on plantations and hunted down fugitive slaves. Slave patrols played an instrumental role in enforcing existing laws of southern societies and operated until slavery...
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...Juvenile Crime Statistics Juvenile Crime Statistics Law enforcement agencies like to figure out statistics whether it be for adults or juveniles. Statistics give law enforcement agencies an overall view of the rates, whether rates increased or decreased and also allows law enforcement agencies to show the people what is going on. Statistics for juveniles are just as important as they are for adults. Arrest statistics is one set of statistics law enforcement agencies track. “Arrest statistics report the number of arrests that law enforcement agencies made in a given year” (Puzzanchera, 2008). Males, females, race and ethnicity are different categories arrests rates are tracked and viewed. When tracking arrest rates law enforcement agencies can also see what crime more arrests happen for. Juvenile statistics show law enforcement agencies and society how the juveniles are doing when it comes to arrests. Overall Decrease in Juvenile Arrests Juveniles are being arrested every day for multiple reasons. When juveniles are arrested society does not hear anything about it because when a juvenile is arrested or involved in any sort of situation with law enforcement it is kept confidential to protect the juvenile. Juvenile arrests statistics for a given year show whether juvenile arrests increased or decreased from previous years and the overall goal is for the rates to decrease. “In 2008, law enforcement agencies in the United States made an estimated 2.11 million arrests of...
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...examines the NYPD’s stops, this articles claims that minorities are stopped more often then whites. In regards to stops blacks and hispanics represented 51% and 33% of the stops although representing only 26% and 24% of the New York City population. In comparison to the number of arrests of each group in the previous year (used as a proxy for the rate of criminal behavior), blacks were stopped 23% and hispanics 39% more often than whites (pg.18).” The way in which the data was collected was by the authors “using hierarchical multilevel models to adjust for precinct-level variability, thus directly addressing the question of geographic heterogeneity that arises in the analysis of pedestrian stops (pg.1).” Even with the data that they collected they determined that ‘African and Hispanic descent were stopped more frequently than whites.” Having these findings presented, the question is why are minorities being stopped more frequently than whites. To answer this question we must understand that people have biases, and have subconscious biases. With members in law enforcement being human, they also suffer...
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...and civil liberties of the targeted individuals, but also erodes trust in law enforcement agencies and stigmatizes minority communities. Despite the progress made in civil rights, racial profiling remains a significant issue that demands our attention and action. This paper aims to delve into the complexities of racial profiling, exploring...
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...Use of Force by Police in Law Enforcement Name Institution Professor Course Date Abstract This paper seeks to explore the use of force among police officers in law enforcement in urban cities and how it relates with common variables regarding police officers. Some of the police variables that will be discussed include race, education, experience, age. These variables will be comprehensively studied so as to ascertain if there exists any relationship among these variables and use of force among police office in law enforcement. Introduction The use of force presents one of the most controversial sectors of law enforcement in any given society. Recent developments have escalated concern about police use of force. These ranges from properly publicized occurrences involving accusations of excessive force to the inception of violent policing whose frequent emphasis is on zero tolerance law enforcement. The kind of police actions that most provoke public concern include fatal shootings, severe beatings with fists or batons that result in hospitalization of the victims, choke holds that cause oblivion or even death. The use of force by law enforcement personnel is permitted by law under certain circumstances such as in self-defense or in defense of another individual or group of persons (Barrett 2008). Law enforcement officers receive direction from their respective agencies on when to apply force during law enforcement, but there exists no universal set of regulations...
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...is the prejudiced practice by law enforcement officers and people or the use of an individual’s race, national origin and ethnicity as a belief of crime or committing an offense. Criminal profiling, mostly, as practiced by law officers, is the dependence on a type of character traits they believe to be related with felonies. Racial profiling has been a very serious issue over these past years. Identifying unlawful activities by using the practice of race as a means of profiling has been used in so many ways including...
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...between Race and Law Enforcement. Liberty University Wendy Thomas Abstract Law –a binding custom or practice of a community: a rule of conduct or action prescribed or formally recognized as binding or enforced by a controlling authority. Enforcement –the act of enforcing, to carry out effectively. These words together create a strong force in communities today, law enforcement. Law enforcement officers are supposed to ensure obedience to the laws, but for many minorities they ensure that “they” obey the laws. With hot spots such as YouTube, MySpace, and internet search engines, we are seeing more cases of racial profiling from law enforcement being brought to our attention. This eye opening topic is now being researched and studied at high rates, many researchers want to know if it is at all possible that minorities could be targeted be law enforcement. Racial Profiling: Examining the Relationship between Race and Law Enforcement. Racial disparities in the U.S. criminal justice system are pronounced (Council of Economic Advisors, 1999). So how is it that, The U.S. Department of Justice has projected that 28.5 percent of Black men will be incarcerated in their lifetimes, compared to 4.4 percent of White men (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1997)? Are black men more likely to commit crimes or are they being profiled? The purpose of this paper is to provide a realistic perspective on the treatment of minorities, specifically blacks by law enforcement. What is racial...
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...Use of Force by Police in Law Enforcement Name Institution Professor Course Date Abstract This paper seeks to explore the use of force among police officers in law enforcement in urban cities and how it relates with common variables regarding police officers. Some of the police variables that will be discussed include race, education, experience, age. These variables will be comprehensively studied so as to ascertain if there exists any relationship among these variables and use of force among police office in law enforcement. Introduction The use of force presents one of the most controversial sectors of law enforcement in any given society. Recent developments have escalated concern about police use of force. These ranges from properly publicized occurrences involving accusations of excessive force to the inception of violent policing whose frequent emphasis is on zero tolerance law enforcement. The kind of police actions that most provoke public concern include fatal shootings, severe beatings with fists or batons that result in hospitalization of the victims, choke holds that cause oblivion or even death. The use of force by law enforcement personnel is permitted by law under certain circumstances such as in self-defense or in defense of another individual or group of persons (Barrett 2008). Law enforcement officers receive direction from their respective agencies on when to apply force during law enforcement, but there exists no universal set of regulations...
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