Women Police Officers In initial discussion post, briefly summarize readings Kleinig Banks' texts. In addition, initial post discuss journal articles Appendix A. The journal article choose discuss post article chosen week. The post include a question elicit responses peers.

Discussion post: Women police officers and the use of coercion

According to the article "Women police officers and the use of coercion" (Paoline & Terrill 2005), despite many advances in equalizing the treatment of the genders in hiring and promotional decisions, women police officers continue to face prejudice within the profession. Women are perceived as lacking the necessary psychological and physical strength to deal with unruly suspects or even members of the public. But is this true, empirically speaking? Until recently, most studies focused on excessive use of force and different gendered patterns. This study attempted to understand the impact of gender upon the reasonable use of coercion.

The data accumulated by the authors, did not support many commonly-articulated assumptions regarding female police officers. "Examinations of both verbal and physical force reveal few differences in not only the prevalence of each...

Previous research conducted since the 1970s indicated that female officers were "less aggressive, [gave] fewer arrests and tickets, [and] less likely to receive citizen complaints" (Paoline and Terrill 2005: 98). Paoline and Terrill conducted a "systematic social observation study" comparing police units in Indianapolis, Indiana, and St. Petersburg, Florida (Paoline and Terrill 2005: 98). Patrols were observed and compared in 12 beats in each city (Paoline and Terrill 2005: 103).
One problem with the study is the multitude of factors beyond gender that can influence use of force, such as suspect characteristics (Paoline and Terrill 2005: 106). As well as gender, the study designers examined multiple influences that could determine the use of force, including the officer's "race, highest level of education, and years of experience" (Paoline and Terrill 2005: 105). And the study is dependent to great degree upon the ability of the observers to accurately assess the appropriateness of force and what constitutes coercive behavior. Observer bias, for example, might cause the study designers to view women as more or less aggressive…