POLICE SEXISM AND RACISM IN THE LINE OF DUTY

   All across America, sexual and racial harassment go on.  It is hard to think that the women and men of law enforcement commit those sins as well.  Less often than more, it does go on in our police departments.  Whether it be discrimination on account of skin color or sexual harassment, police departments try to cut down on it happening.  "One bad apple can ruin a bunch," and one crooked cop can ruin a respected office.

LITERATURE REVIEW

    There are two kinds of sexual misconduct that officers can be involved in.  One is the misconduct put on fellow female officers, and the other is accepting sexual favors from victims they have stopped for suspicion. We know relatively little about police officer sexual activity that constitutes deviant behavior. It is necessary to distinguish between behavior that is considered “sexually deviant” and behavior that violates the expected norms of law enforcement. “Sexual deviance” is usually implied with rape, child molestation, or kinky acts, but there is a fine line when there is any kind of uniform involved. While there is no question what is normal in your own home or your own time, police departments in America insists on no kind of sexual misconduct while involved in professional activities.

    The simplest thing for law enforcement is to prohibit sexual relations between officers and anyone they come in contact with during the course of their job. From the administrators view, this preempts the entire problem by trying to prohibit the behavior.

One of the seven sins is stronger then any rule or regulation, lust is the drive that makes good people make bad decisions. One could argue that if a citizen initiates the contact, no one is likely to complain. There are however two problems, (1 what are the motives of

the citizen, and (2 what should the officer do when the advance is made while he or she

is on duty.

    Another justification often provided for prohibiting relationships among officers is the potential for sexual harassment in the work place. Sexual harassment can take one of two forms: (1) requiring an individual to grant sexual favors to obtain, maintain, or improve employment status, or (2) creation of a hostile work environment. Not only in police departments, sexual harassment happens in job fields in all the world, but the alternatives are usually the same.

            Along with other problems that law enforcement agencies face come racism. Most of the time none the men and women in the line of duty do not see color. There are those few though that do and therefore every time a person feels they have been mistreated they pull the race card.

[Comments: I posted your part 2. You didn't revise or extend part 1 like you could have done.  I'd like to see more research in this "research" paper.]

Last updated: 11/06/02