Citation

Simpson R, Croft A. Women Crim. Justice 2021; 31(5): 406-421.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/08974454.2020.1842290

PMID

unavailable

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.

Language: en

Keywords

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