Lubyansky 1

Nadine Lubyansky

Professor Thomas

English 3020

24 April 2017

MLA Style

Police Brutality and Gender

INTRODUCTION

Police brutality was one major problem of the 1967 Detroit rebellion and it is a problem

that continues to persist even today. Innocent lives are being lost everyday at the hands of people

who we think are trying to keep us safe. There have been many recent reports of police using

unnecessary means to try to detain an individual who was not armed and/or not a threat to the

police. Police officers normally get away with this crime as well. Police brutality can be defined

as the use of excessive force to accomplish a purpose, such as detaining an individual that was

seemingly a threat. There are many factors that affect police brutality such as race and

socioeconomic status but this papers focus, as well as my research focus, is on one that is

typically not talked about: gender and more specifically, peoples opinions about this topic. The

group that is most affected by police brutality is African Americans but this project aims to

determine if police are more likely to use excessive force on women or men and what type of

violence is more commonly faced by female victims of police brutality. This paper also aims to

explore how different female and male officers approaches are to brutality and how these

statistics relate to peoples opinions.

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LITERATURE REVIEW

Differences of the type of brutality used against genders

One paper by Georgia Sand, who is an attorney, mentioned that men are more affected by

police brutality then women but police still use excessive force on women as well. She

specializes in the field of civil litigation and has a specific interest in social justice.

Women still suffer abuse from police but in different forms. There was a case where a pregnant

woman was beaten down during a child abuse case (Sand 1). The police claimed that they had a

warrant for her arrest but did not let her read it.

Another case said that police shot a woman in the back of her head and killed her (Sand

1). There were complaints of her being too loud and the woman and her friends were unarmed.

Eye witness reports mentioned that the police officer just kept shooting at the group of friends

with the intent to kill them. They had been walking away at the time of the incident. This article

also talked about the problem that women are facing is not only police brutality in the streets but

police brutality at home. It found that at least 40% of families with police officers experience

domestic violence compared to the general population which is 10 % (Sand 1). One case

mentions that a police officer chased his wife down the street and murdered her. The type of

violence that also occurs that women are more likely to be victims of is sexual abuse (Sand 1).

Police often tell women that they must exchange sexual acts with them if they do not

want to go to jail meaning that police take advantage of vulnerable women and sexually assault

them. The police officers often do not get in trouble when they commit such heinous acts as

well. Their friends on the force do not report them in as well even if they see or hear these acts

happen. This has happened in two cases where a police officer will often tell women that they
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can work something out like adults meaning that the woman should perform sexual acts in

order to ensure her freedom. They can also take advantage of drunk women when they are taken

in for public intoxication.

Police use their power to their advantage and do not face the consequences until much

later, as reported by Cara Rabe-Hemp. She is a professor in the Department of Criminal Justice

sciences at Illinois State University and has a PhD in Criminal Justice from the university of

Illinois. She also conducts research in topics like gender policing and citizens perception of the

police. In one case, one police officer had been sexually assaulting women for four years until

charges had been filed against him (Sand 2). Police abuse is a problem that affects men and

women in many different ways but it is a prevalent problem. This article explored the problem

now but I also wanted to explore the problem around the time of the 1967 riots. This article gave

many real world examples of each case of police abuse which helped back up the claims that this

article was making.

One woman, Chaumtoli Huq, that was held in custody after being arrested after a rally

recounts her experience. She has extensive experience in movement lawyering, litigation, public

policy, and management. She is interested in areas regarding human rights. She is a lawyer who

was a senior researcher at the Institute for Bangladesh. She mentions that she was asked where

her husband was when she was first detained. Woman are often victims of gendered verbal abuse

and sexism as well. The author also mentions that often female victims are ignored and are

mostly unheard of. She helped provide first hand insight on the sexism that women face when

they are held in custody or detained by police. Female victim cases do not get as much attention
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as male victim cases. Woman make up 20 percent of murder victims that are unarmed by police,

according to Alex Ronan who has worked on numerous projects that involve human rights and

has been a writer for many years, but the news outlets rarely discuss these cases though. Only

recently have there been more campaigns started to highlight the fact that women are victims of

police brutality as well. There can be no potential solution to the problem, as stated by Huq, until

women are acknowledged and talked about as victims as well.

Black women are more likely to be victims of physical abuse then white women. Black

women are also more likely to be overlooked as victims as well. Typically, when policies are

made they are gender neutral when they should make sure that they include specifics that apply

to women because of how differently victims are treated. This is one potential solution to the

problem but the problem has to be noticed and talked about as well. These articles help highlight

the fact that although men are victims of police brutality, women also suffer at the hands of the

police in a variety of ways. Police abuse their power and often get away with it. Female victim

cases are often overlooked as well and people do not hear about these cases until much later.

Female vs. Male Officers

The next reading by Danielle Paquette took a different approach in talking about the

disparities amongst men and women and police brutality . She has a specialty in the topic of

intersection of people and policy and has been a reporter for many years . This was something

that I had previously never thought of before as I did not think to take this type of approach . This

article mentioned that one of the ways to stop police brutality was to include more female

officers. This is a solution that was previously unmentioned in most readings about this topic .
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Through previous studies conducted, it was concluded that female officers have placed more of

an emphasis on trying to diffuse a situation before it turned deadly versus just using force and

damaging the victim possibly forever and taking someones loved one away (Paquette 2).

Women on the force are also more likely to report their fellow police officers for

unethical behavior, meaning that if they see something occur they will tell their boss instead of

letting it happen as mentioned above (Paquette 1). There are statistically also less citizen

complaints filed against women then men . There were only two women of the total 54 officers

that were charged with fatally shooting in the last decade (Paquette 1) . There are exceptions to

this and some women are aggressive and some men are more gentle with cases which is

important to keep in mind. During the time of the 1967 Detroit riots there were a many more

men then women on the police force. This might have been one factor in the abuse faced by

Detroits citizens by police although not much is said about this topic . Of the nations police

officers, about 88% of them are men which is a decrease from the 1970s when 97% of the

nations officers were male meaning that more and more women are joining the police force

which could lead to less fatalities (Paquette 1).

Male officers are also more expensive then female officers and they get paid more so

often women are discouraged from joining the force which was part of why so few women were

joining the police force. Women are less expensive because they have less cases filed against

them for using excessive force. It was mentioned that the Los Angeles Police Department had to

pay $63.4 million to victims over a 10-year period for cases involving the use of excessive force

by a male police officer and only 2 .8 million was paid for cases involving a female officer
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(Paquette 3). In the Cincinnati Police Department women only accounted for 7 .7 percent of

dollars paid for use of excessive force while male officers accounted for 94 .8 percent of the

dollars paid in settlements (Paquette 3).

There are typically more men on the force then women but between the 1970s and

1990s there was an increase in the amount of women joining the force (Paquette 1) . In fact, the

number of women who joined the force nearly tripled . In a survey conducted by Lorene Sandifer,

who has a masters of arts in Criminology and Criminal Justice from the University of Texas, and

taken by various police officers of both genders, more female police officers reported that their

male co-workers were quicker to use excessive force (Sandifer 25) . This survey also found that

more police officers felt that female police officers were more likely to try to solve the problem

without using excessive force (Sandifer 25). These readings showed the differences in policing

of male and female officers. Women are less likely to use force when it is not life threatening but

they are also less likely to join the force. Male officers are typically more expensive as they have

more cases filed against them. Women want to undersand the problem and come to a viable

solution.

Conclusion

In sum, this paper aims to see the affects of gender on police brutality. There are many

differences that men and women face when talking about this issue. These differences include

the types of violence that each gender experience. Men are more likely to experience police

brutality while women are more likely to experience sexual and domestic abuse, as pointed out in

these articles. There are also differences in the way that female and male officers police an area.
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All the studies came to the conclusion that female police officers are less likely to use force and

try to solve the problem while their male counterparts are quicker to use force. Some data even

suggests that having more female officers on the job is one solution to police brutality. There

were not many articles which described the police brutality at the time of the Detroit riots but

after doing research about the current state of police brutality it can be concluded that it was

worse at the time of the Detroit riots as there were less women on the force and there was more

racism in the society. Although there are many differences amongst the genders when it comes to

police brutality, it is still a problem that persists even today.

METHODS

Sampling Method. The data collection used during this study consisted of sending a short

survey to students at Wayne State University. The survey was distributed to about 48 students in

an English 3020 class. This class focuses on the 1967 Detroit rebellion and issues related to this

event. This class also allows us to utilize primary research methods and work in our community.

Many of the issues that were relevant to the event, are still relevant now. The survey was also

posted on the universitys site, Academica. The survey was created using the website Survey

Monkey. The survey had 10 questions in total. Participants had the option to not answer certain

questions if they did not feel comfortable which is why there may have been certain questions

that had a smaller pool of participants. There were also a few questions that allowed for multiple

responses. The reason that surveys were used during this study was to find out the opinion of

many people and to see if there were any trends that could be seen. They are also relatively easy

to distribute to a large number of people and this study needed a good amount of people. It
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would take a long time to try to interview more than ten people so, surveys was a great choice.

The response rate could not be determined because there was no way to know exactly who took

this survey.

The reason that this survey was distributed to Wayne State University students was out of

convenience. Also, Wayne State University has a wide variety of people coming from different

backgrounds. The survey was anonymous but it did include a question about the gender of the

participants so that a trend could be discussed there. A few questions that were in the survey

included Do you think police brutality is a problem that we are facing today? and What do

you think is the main factor that provokes police brutality?. Also, Towards whom do you think

police are more violent? and What would be a solution to the problem of police brutality?.

The people who took the survey were of different races and genders. A majority of people who

took this survey were women, they comprised about 72.97% (27/37) of participants. There was

one participant who did not want to reveal their gender.

RESULTS

There were many outcomes that came from conducting this survey. Almost everyone that

took the survey agreed that police brutality is a problem. There were about 32 out of 37 who

agreed that it was a problem. About 13.51% (5/37) of people who took the survey felt that

gender was a factor that provoked police brutality. About 76.32% (29/38) of participants felt that

male and female criminals were treated differently by the police. Around 76.32% (29/38) of

participants felt that male and female police officers treated criminals differently. 32 out of 38

(84.21%) participants felt that police should take more responsibility in police brutality
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incidents. 100% (37/37) of participants felt that police were more violent towards men. 100% of

participants felt that women were more likely to get sexually harassed by the police. 91.67%

(33/36) of participants felt that male police officers were more likely to be violent towards

criminals. Only one (2.7%) participant felt that a solution to the problem of police brutality

was to add more female officers. The most popular solution from the options that were given was

forcing police officers to wear a camera (70.27%). The second most popular which was very

close in numbers to the first solution was stricter guidelines from the government (54.05%). The

last option that was offered was requiring police officers to take a course on prevention of police

brutality.

DISCUSSION

Significance of Findings. There was almost a consensus that police brutality is a

problem, which means that it is something that needs to be fixed and addressed. A majority of

participants also felt that police should take more responsibility for brutality incidents. This

means that a people agree that there needs to be a solution to this problem and that police officers

who commit this crime should be punished and not looked over. Another important find through

the survey that was conducted is that not many people see gender as a factor that provokes police

brutality, the majority thought that it was race. Race is one of the most important factors that

provokes police brutality which means that police brutality is something that is seen as being

deeply rooted in racism. Although that is not the topic of this research paper, it is an important

point for many to understand and according to the survey, many people did understand that.
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Participants felt that gender was one of the least important factors in provoking police

brutality, which might have been due to the fact that the term police brutality itself, has a violent

connotation. The violence that is associated with the term is more physical than sexual. One of

the questions that was asked included towards whom are police more violent, meaning

physical violence, and every single person who took the survey said that police are more violent

towards men. Almost every single participant also said that women are more likely to get

sexually harassed by police but they probably did not think that this was in the category of police

brutality. Police brutality can come in many forms which includes sexual harassment but most

people do not associate this type of brutality.

A majority of participants felt that police treat male and female criminals differently,

this correlates with the previous statement made that men and women face police brutality in

different ways and it is a term that encompasses all types of violence that can be faced. Another

important find was that a majority of people felt that female and male police officers treat

criminals differently. This could be due to the fact that male police officers are seen as more

violent. There are exceptions to this statement, but a majority of the time, male police officers

are more likely to be violent towards criminals. This was also proven by the article mentioned

earlier in the paper by Danielle Paquette, who mentioned that female police officers were more

likely to try to solve the dispute versus just trying to beat the victim into submission. Even

though this question was asked and a majority of people agreed that male police officers do treat

victims differently than female police officers, participants did not think that a good solution to

the problem of police brutality was adding more female police officers. In fact, only one person

thought that this would be a good solution. When first doing research on this topic, I also did not
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think that adding more female police officers would be a solution but when looking at the data

and the opinions of the participants, it makes sense. If more women are encouraged to join the

police force, violence towards criminals would decrease as mentioned in the article by

Danielle Paquette. There has been extensive research done on this topic as mentioned in the

literature review, that has proven that this is the case. Many people do not know of this research,

which would explain why people did not think to put this as a solution, even though a majority of

participants who took the survey were women. When looking at the data though, every single

person who took the survey felt that male police officers were more likely to be violent towards

criminals. It would make sense to think that this would mean that more female police officers

would help decrease the violence. Had this information been available or previously mentioned

to the participants, there would have been more people who thought that this was a solution.

Recently, there has been a new solution to police brutality that is being reported on which

is forcing police officers to wear a camera. That has been a major news topic for a while which is

probably why most participants put it down as a solution. They were presented, thought the news

or outside research, about this topic extensively and have developed an opinion about it. The

topic of female police officers has not even been mentioned on the news which is why most

people probably did not even think that it was an option.

The majority of participants opinions almost did not align with the research. The

opinions that did align were that male police officers were more likely to use violence than

female police officers and that men were more likely to be victims of physical violence. Women

are also more likely to get sexually harassed which most of the participants thought. The opinion
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that did not align was that adding more female police officers would help decrease police

brutality but this was addressed earlier in the paper.

Limitations of Study There were many interesting discoveries made with this research but

there were some setbacks during the study. One major setback was that not many people

completed the survey that was sent out. There were about 38 participants in the survey but there

are many students that attend Wayne State University. There were also a few questions that

people skipped because they could have felt uncomfortable, which was not the intent, which

means that there is an even smaller pool of data for certain questions. There were only a few

platforms that were available to send the survey to most people that were on campus. Another

limitation was also that the response rate could not be determined because there was no way to

determine exactly who took the survey.

Another limitation was the gender of the participants. There were a majority of women

who took the survey and only a few men who did. Gender can have a huge impact on the way

that a question is looked at and answered and having a balance would have made it easier to see

any trends and discuss patterns in terms of how men and women answered these questions.

Another setback was that the race of the participant was not asked for. Although the study was

focused on gender, many participants agreed that this was a race problem as well. Had the race

of the participant been asked, there may have been a way to discuss how that also affects the way

this problem is seen. For example, it was mentioned earlier that the majority of victims of police

brutality are African American so, white students may have put that police brutality was not a

problem at all because they are not really facing it.

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One difficulty that I had when conducting the survey was the wording of the questions.

Although I did not mean criminals in a negative way, because sometimes the victim is

innocent, people could have associated that negatively. This may have affected their answers

because some people may have felt that they deserved the treatment they were getting because

they committed a crime. Also, as mentioned earlier, police brutality should have been defined

more clearly in the question because many participants probably did not think that this term also

included sexual violence but they did feel that mainly women were victims of it.

Another setback that occurred was that not many people were informed that adding more

female police officers would help decrease police brutality. If there could be more reports about

this or participants had access to the research conducted on this topic there would have been

more people who picked that as a good solution. The data even showed that a majority of people

felt that male police officers were more violent towards criminals. Conducting this survey

helped me to better conduct surveys in the future and think about word choice and how that can

affect results.

Questions for Further Study There are many other factors that I would like to explore in

terms of this topic. On the survey, one factor that people felt provoked police brutality was age,

this is something that I had previously not thought about as being a major factor in police

brutality. Another study that I would like to conduct would be to visit an area that has a majority

of female police officers and see what their rates of police brutality are. I would also like to see if

police departments even realize the great benefits of adding female police officers to their force.
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I would also like to redistribute the survey that I have created after changing the wording

and adding a question about the race of the participant to discuss any trends that are seen. I

would also like to distribute this survey to more people around campus and have a wider pool of

participants. I would like to conduct interviews to try to find out peoples personal opinions.

Another area that I would be interested in studying is solutions to this problem. A majority of

participants thought that making police wear cameras was a good solution to this problem and I

would like to explore this area of research.

I would also like to explore how the government could implement policies that help end

police brutality but make sure that they word these policies so that they include all victims of

police brutality. Another area that I would explore would be other victims of police brutality that

are not talked about often such as members of the LGBT community. While looking for data for

this research project, I found many interesting looking articles about other victims that looked

very interesting.

CONCLUSION

Police brutality is an ongoing issue that is as prevalent now as it was before. It has deeply

racist and sexist roots. There are many factors that can provoke police brutality but one that is

not generally not talked about is gender. This topic has not been talked or researched about as

much as others probably because most people do not think that it is a factor that matters as much

as race, for example. Women face other forms of police brutality that are not really talked about.

Women are more likely to get sexually harassed by police officers but they can still be victims of
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excessive force. Female police officers are less likely to use force on criminals but there are

typically not many women on the police force. Through conducting a survey, that was distributed

to Wayne State University students, I have learned a lot about the way that people think about

police brutality. I have learned that a majority of people see police brutality as a problem that we

are facing. I also learned that police brutality can have many different meanings but most people

think of it as physical violence and there should be a better definition of the word that includes

all forms of violence that a victim can face. I also learned that people do not see adding more

female police officers as a solution to police brutality, even though they think that female police

officers are less violent then male police officers. This survey also helped determine the opinions

of people and seeing if they aligned with the statistics that were presented in the papers.

Hopefully, more people will talk about adding more female police officers as that is a good

solution to this problem that has not been explored yet. There is good research on this topic that

more people should be exposed too. It is important to realize that police brutality is an issue that

affects everyone and that there should be more solutions made so that no one has to feel unsafe at

the hands of the police.

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Works Cited

Huq, Chaumtoli. " Stop Policing Gender Outlaws." Al Jazeera America. N.p., 14 Oct. 2015.

Web. 01 Apr. 2017.

Paquette, Danielle. "One Way to Curb Police Brutality That No One Is Talking about." The

Washington Post. WP Company, 14 July 2016. Web. 01 Apr. 2017.

Rabe-Hemp, Cara. " Policewomen or Policewomen?." Feminist Criminology. N.p., 11 Dec.

2008. Web. 01 Apr. 2017.

Ronan, Alex. "It's Time to Talk About the Female Victims of Police Brutality." The Cut. N.p.,

Apr. 2015. Web. 01 Apr. 2017.

Sand, Georgia. "Our Readers May Be Overwhelmingly Male, But Police Brutality Is Everyone's

Problem." Cop Block. N.p., 23 July 2015. Web. 01 Apr. 2017.

Sandifer, Lorene. "Police Use of Force: Does Gender Make a Difference." Uta-ir.tdl.org. N.p.,

Dec. 2006. Web. 31 Mar. 2017.