Minority Issues in the Criminal Justice Workplace - Research Paper Example

 Minority Issues in the Criminal Justice Workplace Introduction In United States two decades earlier, the police department had passed a law to hire people without considering their race or gender. The misconduct of the police with the minorities started three centuries back. However, over several decades various organizational, structural and socio- professional methods have been used to change the American police practices and procedures to eliminate the misconduct. Research from different social scientists has concluded that the idea of misconduct has organizational implications. This organizational subculture during the basic training influences the behavior of police officers. Researchers have also concluded that the uncertain relationship between black officers and their department gives them the feeling of a second class citizen or an outsider in their own department (Johnson, 2006). When we talk about women in the police department, it is seen that on the bases of their determination and struggle women police have transformed their role from social worker to work as police officers. Even in the recent years it is seen that the acceptance by their male counterparts is difficult to happen. At best, women in the law enforcement department receive a cool reception from the male officers and if we consider the worst case a hostile reception awaits for them in this field (Price, 1996). The early history of women police consisted largely of services in which they had to meet the higher standards to get the employment and in return they receive lower wages. They were restricted only to a bureau or special unit and were given clerical to primarily, guard duty and vice work. In those days, women police were only allowed to get promoted within their own special women’s unit. They were not permitted to get same promotion tests as men. In addition to this they were also not allowed to perform basic patrol duties (Price, 1996). But now the scenarios have changed. Though even in recent years, female officers experience job challenges; they play a vital role in maintaining and establishing key relationships between the community and the police department. Since, in the 21st century policing is moving away from brute force towards community engagement, female participation should continue to increase (Police Employment, 2010). The Minority Police in the Community of America Racial minorities and women have entered the main stream policing on an equal basis with white men and markedly with large numbers than ever before. The statistical numbers however, do not reveal the varying nature of the job environment, treatment by others on the job, the work itself, internal support of career development promotions and other rewards (Price, 1996). Ways in Which Promotions for Minorities and Women in Police Agencies Are Handled: In the police department, promotional opportunities of minority officers may be less when they are compared to the white officers. Unfortunately, these obstacles come from the department or individual officers that reduce the chance of minorities to get promoted. However, in recent years the law enforcement department is designing the monitoring programs to assist them in the attempt of promoting minorities on the bases of merit. In the police department it has also seen, when the financial conditions are promising, there happens to be more hiring and promotions by the department. On the other hand when the economic situation is not favorable less hiring is accomplished. The tendency of department to hire in waves has eventually caused large period of time to occur between intermediate and junior rank officers. These gaps become significant when the circumstances of minority officers are considered. As a result, today in many departments the minority junior officers complain that the window of opportunity is closing day by day as the opportunities for advancement has not been available for them (Price, 1996). It is also been reported that women hold 64.2 percent of lower-paid civilian law enforcement jobs (National Centre for Women & Policing, a division of the Feminist Majority Foundation, 1998). Women in urban cities face high level of disappointment in their job; they encounter lack of opportunity of advancement conflict between their working hours. They believe, in this field, the department considers women as an unappreciated group. The female policing believes that they are discriminated in work assignments recommendations for promotions and the availability of appropriate facilities. The women in the law enforcement department are not hired, evaluated and promoted on the merits. They are simply hired to satisfy the statistical requirements of the government or some other political needs. This ultimately results in the absence of women in few of the specialized units and uneven distribution of women throughout the police ranks (Price, 1996). Likewise, it can be said that the promotion of women in police department is only the subject of the satisfaction at the government level. Considering the women a weak entity the merit based promotions are not enjoyed by them in this field. The recruitment of minorities for police work Since the 19th century, American women have worked in law enforcement department. However, back then they were mostly relegated to clerical roles or jobs as dispatchers until the revolution took place and laws paved the way for women to assume those law enforcement jobs that were traditionally occupied by men. Though the females have managed to grasp seats in the department, still they are often perceived as too emotional, too physically weak or too passive for the job, but with the increasing trend of police work today towards service- oriented, community- centered approaches, women law enforcement officers find greater opportunities in both hiring and promotion (Police Employment, 2010). It is been unmistakable that today’s police hiring procedure requires a great aptitude for intelligence, communication, compassion, and diplomacy. This makes women a strong candidate for many police departments that surely prefer intellectual aptitude over physical powers (Police Employment, 2010). In the smaller police departments, the percentage of women holding law enforcement position is as low as 10 percent. The reason that National Center for Women and Policing gives behind this is that nearly 90 percent of all law enforcement agencies required physical agility test for the job applicants. At this point, women face challenges when hiring practices include physical benchmark purely based on male aptitude. The survey also discloses that those departments that do not use the test have hired 45 percent more women of the force than those with the agility exams. Now as a result, many departments have set standards for their female officers dependent on the similar percentile of female physical capability (Police Employment, 2010). Despite substantial gains made by law enforcement agencies in order to attract black minorities into police work, most of the municipal police department still has low representation of black officers. The common explanation that is derived for their under representation is that blacks find the prospect of a career in law enforcement department unattractive, assumingly because they have been negatively treated by the police since the start thus they have developed an unfriendly attitude towards the police; which is why it is presumed that the department must continue to try harder to sell this career for the people of color. The other reason reported by the blacks of not choosing policing as a career: in the past, police academy classes were usually filled with white students and there, at times, the minorities were treated unfairly. They were mostly penalized for minor infractions such as having unpolished shoes. However, now the president of the Ethical Society of Police has taken serious steps on this issue and has started the investigation within the police academy as well as the entire department (Police Employment, 2010). Reasons for minorities for entering the police department Traditionally, communication and cooperation between the minorities and police has been disturbed. In early days, the police have a history of enforcement of law that has evidently discriminated against minority groups which particularly included African American. Issues like slavery, discrimination and segregation are few of the historical realities that have forced to shape the strained, distrustful and hostile relationship between the police and minority citizens (Free Encyclopedias, 2010). During the police-citizen crisis of the 1960s, the bitter relationship reached its pinnacle. The civil rights movement has gained momentum and suddenly became more militant. After several protests against the race discrimination and injustice within the criminal justice system, police officers responded brutally against the protest, which further increased the tension between police and minorities. This tension ultimately leads to the civil disobedience and riots (Free Encyclopedias, 2010). The professional police organizations tried to strengthen the relationship between the citizen and police so that they can create a partnership between them. Police department used different techniques to improve community relation such as by creating a race relations training for officers, police community relations units and the hiring of minority and women in the department. Some of these attempts proved to be relatively successful (Free Encyclopedias, 2010). As a result of these efforts, in 1993, many African Americans were selected as police chiefs in several large departments including the offices of New York City, Detroit and Washington. In addition to this, by the mid of 1990s, 13 percent of all the officers in large departments were women. Significantly better results were seen in the year 1997, when the women composed between 5 and 11 percent of sworn officers in sheriff’s, local, state police agencies and special. On the other hand according to the year 2000, depending on the agency, at the federal level, between 8 to 25 percent sworn officers are female whereas between 8 to 42 percent are ethnic minorities. Likewise, after a long struggle the minorities and women gained a presentable status in the police department (Free Encyclopedias, 2010). Despite such advances, police is still struggling with the minority community relations. Thus serious questions regarding police discrimination remains (Free Encyclopedias, 2010). Therefore under such conditions no matter how much discrimination they face, they remain in the agency and strive for better position for their social status. The Police Image Johnson (2006) argues that in the American culture the superiority of white people were traced back from the formative years of the United States. Although the founders of the region worked hard to ensure freedom, liberty and justice for all, however these virtues were mostly reserved for the whites. These believe strengthened after the Civil War that gave white Americans a clear opportunity to establish a line between two races. Later, certain laws and enforcement mechanism enforce the racial segregation in the country. The racial division led to the point where the equal application of the law has different meanings for both the races. The police adopt a ‘to protect and to serve’ strategy in white communities and employ a ‘law and order’ policy in black neighborhood. This unequal treatment and segregation of blacks has not only affected their culture and subculture but it has also influenced the culture and subculture of police, separating them from the entire American population. Though it is common for males and females to work in law enforcement, there is a lack of females in law enforcement. According to Davis (2005) the employment of women in the police force is gradually increasing still the women are underutilized by law enforcement agencies. The one reason that leads to this is that the males are biased within this male dominant profession. Regardless of the laws forbidding discrimination, women in the police still face discrimination, harassment, and under representation. The reason that is concluded from the history about such hostile attitude towards the female officers is the increasing pressure from the community groups, professional organizations and their constituents to hire more females, make them an unwanted entity in the male dominant field. This inferior attitude towards females forces many talented women to not come in the field and serve the country with dignity (Davis, 2005). To further enhance the image of the police department and giving women more chances to enter this field, traditional policing activities are combined with community policing techniques. The traditional policing tricks are the core of most of the police department. Community policing calls have a slightly different perspective. The slight change in the policing technique has increased the capacity of agencies to deliver fairer, efficient and effective police service. Police Professionalism To achieve the highest level of professionalism law enforcement agencies should have adopted a certain policy. Their Professional Role: As a general force, the law enforcement agencies respect and recognize the value and dignity of every person. The law enforcement officers must use the authority to keep a balance of the all human interests and protect the public welfare simultaneously. Courtesy shown in all public contacts give way to understanding and cooperation. If the officer is held in a situation where control is required to affect arrest or protect the public safety, initially the officers should attempt to gain control through persuasion and warnings. In case the verbal persuasion does not proves to be effective than the officer can use force in order to arrest the suspect. However, it is also necessary for the police to use the amount of force that is reasonable to bring the incident under control (United States Department of Justice, 2001). It has been noted that women are able to convince the suspect more easily as compared to their peers. Women tend to use less force in the danger zones. Studies have also revealed that in such scenarios, female officers are less likely to be involved in the complaints about using excessive force than males. More than eight times the male officers are reported to use excessive force than their female counterparts. This shows that if the police department hires more women to the force it can result in fewer actions that are brought by the use of excessive force (Police Employment, 2010). In order to safe or protect the life of the officers and other citizens from a serious physical injury or an imminent danger of death it is reasonable for the law enforcement officers to use deadly force. Incase when non-deadly appears to be sufficient it is not necessary to use the deadly force (United States Department of Justice, 2001). Despite this fact that women are more comfortable in handling the critical situations, the research reveals that due to the negative attitude of the men women have to encounter enormous difficulties. Their male counterparts anticipate women failing; they remain uncertain that women can equal men in the majority of the job skills. They do not see the female police doing the real police work and they stick to the myths about the lack of emotional fitness of women. It seems that age, education and race influence attitudes towards women, however, black officers, another minority, are found to be more favorable towards women than white officers (Price, 1996). Other than this discrimination, a further favoritism in women is reported; as compared to black women white women are given a better status in the department. According to the black women, they have to demand respect while the white women are put on pedestals. It is also seen that black women are often send to high crime areas whereas the white women does not face such problems. While the white women police officers enjoy the promotions, special training sessions or are able to secure desired assignments through connections, black women officers do not find anyone by their side to offer help. Black women have also reported verbal racial insult by their colleagues and they experience more racial discrimination from the cops as compare to the public. It is also reported by the black women officers that on the cold nights while they are bound to work on the streets the white female officers get transferred to an easy job such as switchboards. Clearly, the job of policing becomes much more difficult for the black women as they experience “double minority” (Price, 1996). The White Public In the early years, the racial discrimination by the police departments mattered greatly to African American, so the presence of White police in black neighborhoods was a major source of friction thus it was described as an “army of occupation” in black neighborhoods (Weitzer, 2000). In the community of minorities the white officers are considered to have little understanding of their culture and do not attempt to know the local people of the surroundings. Thus these people have found some interactional barrier with white officers (Weitzer, 2000). The fact of a white patrolling the Black neighborhood is completely rejected. The idea of deploying White or Black officer exclusively is considered as racial regression. Thus the communities now prefer mixed teams to avoid racial discrimination among the public (Weitzer, 2000). However, ethnic minorities often feel general weariness around the police, disregarding their color, even if the person has no particular reason to feel jumpy. But this is not the case with most of the white citizens; who feel themselves considerably comfortable in their presence. The Black Public When dealing with the minorities the police department reflects the true picture of the society. Therefore, at times the black officers feel sense of apprehension when they enter a country-and-western bar to make an arrest. There is also a subtle distinction that exists in the process of decision making by the minority officers because many of them believe they will be disciplined or even fired if they use unnecessary force against a white person. For this reasons the decision making for them at such situations become very difficult (Weitzer, 2000). Some of the black officers who never had an experience to live in inner city neighborhoods or have simply forgotten the conditions in these areas seem to suppose that it is their job to keep minority communities in control. This typical thinking against minority forces the black officers to react too harshly in their dealings with minorities thus, this widens the gap between the police and minorities. Therefore, by being harsh with them, the attempt of minority officers to impress their white counterparts make the black officers earn the hostile attitude from the community of minorities. The community of minorities views them as traitors and do not accept them in their group. On the other hand they are also not appreciated and welcomed by the white officers with whom they work. Research has shown that Blacks still hold an unfavorable view about the police as compare to Whites. However, the increasing number of minorities in the law enforcement department has given a sense ownership to them. Hence with the passage of time the police have improved its treatment with the minorities which has slightly defused the tension between the department and the residents (Weitzer, 2000). Statistics of white Latino, black and other males and females In 1968, the police department made a history by assigning the first two female officers to patrol on an equal basis with their male colleagues. From that time on the number of women has increased in the field of law enforcement and has played a critical role in developing modern policing. Yet the enrollment of women in the field has remained small and has less increasing pace (National Center for Women & Policing, 2003). Between the years of 1972 to 1999, women gained an average of approximately half a percentage point per year within large police agencies. However, in the later years the trend started decreasing thus the percentage of women enrolment has reversed. In 2001, women accounted for 8.1 percent in small and rural agencies, 14.4 percent in federal agencies and 12.7 percent of all sworn law enforcement positions in large agencies whereas, the representation of women in large police agencies were 14.3 percent in 1999, 13 percent in 2000 (National Center for Women & Policing, 2003) and 11.3 percent in 2003 (Gustafson, 2010). According to the report, in the year 1997, among the largest law enforcement agencies of the United States women are only comprised of 13.63 percent of all the sworn law enforcement positions out of which 5.5 percent are held by women of color. It is also seen that, in the same year, women held only 6.5 percent of Top Command law enforcement positions, 14.6 percent of line operation position and 9.2 percent of Supervisory positions. Out of it women of color hold 2.2 percent of Top Command law enforcement positions, 6.3 percent of line operation position and 3.5 percent of Supervisory positions. For the same year more than 20 percent of the agencies report no women in Top Command law enforcement positions and approximately, for the highest rank, 80 percent of agencies hove no women of color. Eight agencies stated 20 percent or more women holding Top Command law enforcement post, while only one agency reports over 20 percent of women of color in Top Command post (National Centre for Women & Policing, a division of the Feminist Majority Foundation, 1998). In the mid- 1960s African American comprised only 3.6 percent of police officers. By 2003 they formed 12 percent of this total. This shows the ratio has increased by 35 percent. In 1987, Latino made up 4.5 percent of officers; in 2003, this figure has reached to 9 percent producing the increase by 93 percent (Gustafson, 2010). In 2000, the police of urban areas consist of 38.1 percent of officers that were the members of a racial or ethnic group. It consists of 20.1 percent black, 14.1 percent Latino, and 9 percent other races and 16.3 percent were females (Gustafson, 2010). Overall, in 2004, racial minorities were comprised of about 24 percent of local officers and approximately 19 percent of deputy sheriff. On the other hand seven out of ten departments that have the largest percentage of women in sworn officer positions are recently been under consent decrees to recruit women or minorities. This demonstrates that nearly all the largest gains are achieved just because of the organizations that force these agencies to hire more women or minorities. Studying the current rate of growth it is obvious to conclude that the gains for women in policing is so slow and with the same pace women or minorities will never reach equal or considerable representation in law enforcement agencies (Gustafson, 2010). Conclusion Right or wrong, majority of people that belong to minority hold a skeptical opinion of law enforcement and the criminal justice system in America. If the authorities wish to succeed in curbing the increasing level of violence in law enforcement department of United States, a change must be brought in the perceptions and urge to build new partnerships with minority communities. In most of the ways this change must be accomplished by individual officers by altering the way they interact with the communities they serve. Today the officers must progress on the road constructed by their predecessors in the race relations and work to break down the remaining walls that separate the minority officers from their colleagues. It is clear that women in any profession face challenges that their male counterparts do not have to deal with. However, the women officers have to learn to be more patient and they practice the tough way by not taking prejudice and off color remarks personally. It is also been reported by the female police officers that most of the police departments have become sensitive to sexual or verbal harassment issues therefore their male counterpart has created formal channels for addressing them in this regard (Police Employment, 2010). Statistics has shown that as compared to the early days the recruitment of women and minorities in the policing has increased. However, research has also shown that minorities in policing are not easily accepted either by their own police department, their supervisor, or by their white or male counterparts. Despite the fact that minorities especially women are enrolled in the law enforcement department from last hundreds of years, they still view women with skepticism. As compare to this, in the recent years the public has become more positive about them and welcome their presence more frequently. This acceptance has happened because the women police have been seen more frequently on the street on patrols and in uniform (Price, 1996). References Free Encyclopaedias. 2010. Urban Police-Policing Minority Citizens. Retrieved 25 November 2010 from http://law.jrank.org/pages/2228/Urban-Police-Policing-minority-citizens.html Free Encyclopaedias. 2010. Careers in Criminal Justice: Police-Issues in Employment. Retrieved 25 November 2010 from http://law.jrank.org/pages/620/Careers-in-Criminal-Justice-Police-Issues-in-employment.html Police Employment. 2010. Women in Law Enforcement. Retrieved 25 November 2010 from http://www.policeemployment.com/resources/articles/women-law-enforcement US Department of Justice. 2001. Principles for Promoting Police Integrity. Retrieved 25 November 2010 from http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojp/186189.pdf Davis,A,T. 2005. Gender Inequality in Law Enforcement and Male’s Attitude and Perceptions toward Women Working in Law Enforcement. Retrieved 25 November 2010 from http://dspace.uta.edu/bitstream/handle/10106/39/umi-uta-1181.pdf?sequence=1 National Center for Women & Policing, 2003. Hiring & Retaining More Women: the Advantages to Law Enforcement Agencies. Retrieved 25 November 2010 from http://www.womenandpolicing.org/pdf/NewAdvantagesReport.pdf Gustafson. L.J. 2010. Diversity in Municipal Police Agencies: a National Examination of its Determinants and effects. Retrieved 25 November 2010 from http://iris.lib.neu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1002&context=criminal_justice_diss Price.R.B. 1996. Female police officers in the United States. Retrieved 25 November 2010 from http://www.ncjrs.gov/policing/fem635.htm National Centre for Women & Policing, a division of the Feminist Majority Foundation, 1998. Equality Denied: The Status of Women in Policing, 1997. Retrieved 25 November 2010 from http://www.womenandpolicing.org/status.html Weitzer.R. 2000. White, black, or blue cops? Race and Citizen Assessments of Police Officers. Journal of Criminal Justice (28). Retrieved 25 November 2010 from http://www.gwu.edu/~soc/docs/Weitzer/White_Black.pdf Read More