@article{ref1,
title="Police beliefs about women who offend",
journal="Legal and criminological psychology",
year="1997",
author="Horn, Rebecca and Hollin, Clive R.",
volume="2",
number="2",
pages="193-204",
abstract="Objectives. This study looked at police and non-police beliefs about offenders. It was hypothesized that police officers would have a more negative attitude than non-police officers towards offenders, and that female offenders would be viewed in a more positive way than male offenders. Police officers were expected to perceive greater differences between male and female offenders than the public.Methods. An adapted version of Melvin, Gramling & Gardner's (1985) Attitude Towards Prisoners scale was used to measure attitudes towards male and female offenders. The sample consisted of 135 police officers and 201 non-police officers.Results. Factor analysis of responses suggested three main factors: one concerning the 'fundamental badness' of offenders; one concerning the similarity of offenders and non-offenders; and one concerning the extent to which offenders can be trusted. Analyses of variance indicated that police officers viewed offenders as less similar to non-offenders, and less trustworthy, than the public did. Both police and non-police respondents saw women offenders as less 'fundamentally bad' than male offenders, as more similar to non-offenders, and as more trustworthy than male offenders. No significant interactions were found.Conclusions. Women offenders are believed to be significantly different from male offenders, but police and non-police respondents' beliefs about male and female offenders do not differ significantly. Future research could usefully look at the relationship betweeen policewomen and female offenders, and a more qualitative approach would allow a more contextual analysis to be made of beliefs about women offenders.<p /><p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1355-3259",
doi="10.1111/j.2044-8333.1997.tb00343.x",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8333.1997.tb00343.x"
}