Behind the Blue Line: Investigating Police Officers’ Attitudes Toward Rape

Abstract

The current study contributes to what is known about police officers" attitudes toward rape. A survey was administered to 891 sworn police officers in two states in the southeastern United States. The surveys were designed to assess police officers" acceptance of rape myths. It was hypothesized that police officers would be accepting of rape myths, which are inherently misogynistic. Attitudes toward rape were expected to vary according to educational attainment and experience with rape investigations, such that higher levels of education and more experience with rape investigations would lead to the rejection of rape myths. There was a significant difference in the acceptance of rape myths with varying levels of educational attainment and experience with rape investigations. ARTICLEMen in American society are socialized to espouse "macho" beliefs and behavior. Connell (1987Connell ( , 1995Connell ( , 2002 refers to this as "hegemonic masculinity," an idealized form of masculinity, emphasizing dominance, aggression, heterosexuality and a lack of emotion. Hegemonic masculinity promotes, but does not determine behavior that supports the traditional gender order. Rather, it shapes one"s sense of reality and is modified to fit different situations (Messerschmidt 2000). In other words, hegemonic masculinity acts as a script for how men should behave and/or think in various situations.In conjunction with being socialized as male or female in the larger society, there is also a socialization process that occurs in police culture. Holdaway (1983) discussed police culture as

True Colors: Police Officers and Rape Myth Acceptance

“…5. For a more detailed analysis of responses on the RMA-R and VCS, as well as differences in responses between male and female police officers, see (Page, 2007).…”

A Brief Report on Rape Myth Acceptance: Differences Between Police Officers, Law Students, and Psychology Students in the United Kingdom

“…The latter is reflected by LeDoux and Hazelwood (1985) who found that police officers had in general a low adherence to some rape myths. Page (2008) also found that police officers who were higher in rape myth acceptance were less likely to believe a victim who did not match the "real" rape stereotype compared to police officers who had lower or moderate rape myth acceptance (see also Lee, Lee, & Lee, 2012). Furthermore, male police officers have been demonstrated to accept rape myths at a higher level than did female police officers (Brown & King, 1998;Page, 2007).…”

“…Such a role can have a significant impact on the progression of rape cases through the criminal justice system (Spohn & Tellis, 2012). However, there has been very little research examining police officer rape myth acceptance (Lonsway, Welch, & Fitzgerald, 2001;Page, 2008), demonstrating the importance of conducting research on this topic.…”

“…Understanding adherence to these negative attitudes is an important issue, especially in light of Edward and MacLeod's (1999) suggestion that a police officer's belief in a female rape victim's allegation is based on his or her own individual beliefs about rape (see also Schuller & Stewart, 2000). Page (2010) provided us with the only thorough recent evaluation of police officer rape myth acceptance. In this study, American police officers indicated levels of agreement with several rape myths.…”

Gender and Police Leadership: Time for a Paradigm Shift?

“…There is a now a considerable evidence base that suggests that women officers: are less aggressive, use less force and adopt less confrontation styles in their interactions (Brown and Langan, 2001;McElvain and Kposowa, 2008;Waugh et al , 1998;Rabe-Hemp, 2008, 2009Schuck and Rabe-Hemp, 2005); adopt a higher ethical code of conduct ( Brereton, 1999;Corsianos, 2011;Lonsway, Wood and Spillar, 2000;Waugh, Ede & Alley, 1998;Fleming & Lafferty, 2003; demonstrate greater empathy and communication skills in serving the needs to women and children, especially those subject to violent or sexual abuse (Brown and King, 1998;Page, 2007;Schuller and Stewart, 2000;Sun 2007); have stronger relations with the community (Miller, 1999;Brown and Woolfenden, 2011; are better equipped in developing positive long term relationships in partnership working (O'Neil and McCarthy, 2012); and adopt more transformational leadership styles than their male counterparts (Brown, 2007;Silvestri, 2003and Heidensohn, 1992Rabe-Hemp, 2008;Whittred, 2008).…”