Citation

Bowers Jr DA, Semukhina OB, Reynolds KM. Police Pract. Res. 2024; 25(2): 133-149.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2024, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/15614263.2023.2195181

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This paper investigates gender differences in graduation rates for police trainees in the nationwide sample of police academies collected in 2018 by the Census of Law Enforcement Training Academies. The study explores which characteristics of the police academies can explain the lower levels of graduation for female trainees when compared to their male counterparts. The findings suggest that the stress environment, the gender ratio of trainees, the instructors' minimum education, the affiliation of the police academy with an academic institution, and the length of the program play an important role in explaining lower graduation rates for female trainees. When scrutinizing the specific reasons for failure, female trainees are more likely to fail due to challenges encountered in firearms training, driving lessons, and physical fitness instruction, but not due to overall academic performance. The female trainees are also twice as likely to voluntarily admit to failure and withdraw as their male counterparts.

Language: en

Keywords

female police officers; Police academies; police workforce diversity