Gender representation in police organizations: Do upper-level and street-level female bureaucrats differ in their roles?
Corresponding Author
Sunyoung Pyo
Department of Public Administration, The Catholic University of Korea, Bucheon, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea
Correspondence
Sunyoung Pyo, Department of Public Administration, The Catholic University of Korea, Bucheon, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea.
Email: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorHongseok Lee
Department of Public Administration and Policy, State University of New York (SUNY), Albany, New York, USA
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Sunyoung Pyo
Department of Public Administration, The Catholic University of Korea, Bucheon, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea
Correspondence
Sunyoung Pyo, Department of Public Administration, The Catholic University of Korea, Bucheon, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea.
Email: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorHongseok Lee
Department of Public Administration and Policy, State University of New York (SUNY), Albany, New York, USA
Search for more papers by this authorAbstract
Some representative bureaucracy literature has suggested that increasing the share of female bureaucrats, particularly in supervisory positions, would not have a substantial influence on producing policy outcomes in favor of female clients because of the potential impact of organizational socialization. However, there has been little empirical investigation into how passive female representation across hierarchical ranks and its interaction influence policy outcomes for women. By analyzing data on 360 local U.S. police organizations in 2013 and 2016, we found that a higher proportion of female officers in first-line supervisory level positions was negatively linked to arrest performance for rape offenses, while a higher share of female street-level officers was not significantly linked to arrest performance for the same offenses. However, we noticed a positive interactive effect of the proportion of female street-level officers and female officers at the intermediate-level on rape arrests. These results imply that promoting female representation across different hierarchical ranks in police organizations will help to ensure the benefits of representative bureaucracy.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.
Open Research
DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT
The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in Harvard Dataverse at https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/LTNFRU.
Supporting Information
Filename | Description |
---|---|
gove12758-sup-0001-suppl-data.docx39.1 KB | Supporting Information S1 |
Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.
REFERENCES
- Alderden, M. A., & Ullman, S. E. (2012). Gender difference or indifference? Detective decision making in sexual assault cases. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 27(1), 3–22. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260511416465
- Allison, P. D., & Waterman, R. P. (2002). Fixed effects negative binomial regression models. Sociological Methodology, 32(1), 247–265. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9531.00117
- Andrews, R., Ashworth, R., & Kenneth, J. M. (2014). Representative bureaucracy and fire service performance. International Public Management Journal, 17(1), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/10967494.2014.874253
- Andrews, R., & Miller, K. J. (2013). Representative bureaucracy, gender and policing: The case of domestic violence arrests in England. Public Administration, 91(4), 998–1014. https://doi.org/10.1111/padm.12002
- Baker, D. B., & Hassan, S. (2021). Gender and prosecutorial discretion: An empirical assessment. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 31(1), 73–90. https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/muaa017
- Bradbury, M. D., & Kellough, J. E. (2008). Representative bureaucracy: Exploring the potential for active representation in local government. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 18(4), 697–714. https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/mum033
- Brown, J., & King, J. (1998). Gender differences in police officers attitudes towards rape: Results of an exploratory study. Psychology, Crime and Law, 4(4), 265–279. https://doi.org/10.1080/10683169808401760
- Cameron, A. C., & Trivedi, P. K. (2009). Microeconometrics using STATA. Stata Press.
- Chanin, J., & Rojo-Mendoza, R. (2019). Does gender matter? Using social equity, diversity, and bureaucratic representation to examine police-pedestrian encounters in seattle, Washington. Administrative Theory and Praxis, 42(2), 133–152. https://doi.org/10.1080/10841806.2019.1659049
10.1080/10841806.2019.1659049 Google Scholar
- Choi, H., & Hong, S. (2021). Linking political and bureaucratic representation: Does minority representation on city councils affect the outcomes of street-level service? Public Administration, 99(2), 405–421. https://doi.org/10.1111/padm.12696
- Choi, H., Hong, S., & Lee, J. W. (2018). Does increasing gender representativeness and diversity improve organizational integrity? Public Personnel Management, 47(1), 73–92. https://doi.org/10.1177/0091026017738539
- Dolan, J. (2000). The senior executive service: Gender, attitudes, and representative bureaucracy. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 10(3), 513–529. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.jpart.a024279
10.1093/oxfordjournals.jpart.a024279 Google Scholar
- Eagly, A. H., & Carli, L. L. (2003). The female leadership advantage: An evaluation of the evidence. The Leadership Quarterly, 14(6), 807–834. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2003.09.004
- Engel, R. S. (2000). The effects of supervisory styles on patrol officer behavior. Police Quarterly, 3(3), 262–293. https://doi.org/10.1177/1098611100003003003
10.1177/1098611100003003003 Google Scholar
- Fernandez, S., Malatesta, D., & Smith, C. R. (2012). Race, gender, and government contracting: Different explanations or new prospects for theory? Public Administration Review, 73(1), 109–129. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2012.02684.x
- Frisch-Aviram, N., Cohen, N., & Beeri, I. (2018). Low-level bureaucrats, local government regimes and policy entrepreneurship. Policy Sciences, 51(3), 39–57. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11077-017-9296-y
10.1007/s11077-017-9296-y Google Scholar
- Grissom, J. A., Nicholson-Crotty, J., & Keiser, L. (2012). Does my boss's gender matter? Explaining job satisfaction and employee turnover in the public sector. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 22(4), 649–673. https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/mus004
- Headley, A. M. (2021). Accountability and police use of force: Interactive effects between minority representation and civilian review boards. Public Management Review, 24(11), 1682–1704. https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2021.1916066
- Henderson, L. J. (1979). Administrative advocacy: Black administrators in urban bureaucracies. R&E Research Associates.
- Hong, S. (2017). Does increasing ethnic representativeness reduce police misconduct? Public Administration Review, 77(2), 195–205. https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12629
- Hong, S. (2021). Representative bureaucracy and hierarchy: Interactions among leadership, middle-level, and street-level bureaucracy. Public Management Review, 23(9), 1317–1338. https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2020.1743346
- Hyland, S. S., & Davis, E. (2021). Local police departments, 2016; personnel. U.S. Department of Justice. Retrieved May 13, 2021 https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/lpd16p.pdf
- Imai, K., & Kim, I. S. (2019). When should we use unit fixed effects regression models for causal inference with longitudinal data? American Journal of Political Science, 63(2), 467–490. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12417
- International Association of Chiefs of Police. (2015). Sexual assault response policy and training content guidelines. Retrieved May 10 https://www.theiacp.org/sites/default/files/all/i-j/IACP%20Sexual%20Assault%20Response%20Policy%20and%20Training%20Content%20Guidelines.2017.3.23.pdf
- Javaid, A. (2018). Male rape, masculinities, and sexualities: Understanding, policing, and overcoming male sexual victimization. Palgrave Macmillian.
10.1007/978-3-319-52639-3 Google Scholar
- Johnston, K., & Houston, J. (2018). Representative bureaucracy: Does female police leadership affect gender-based violence arrests? International Review of Administrative Sciences, 84(1), 3–20. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020852315619222
- Keiser, L. R., Wilkins, V. M., Meier, K. J., & Holland, C. A. (2002). Lipstick and logarithm: Gender, institutional context, and representative bureaucracy. American Political Science Review, 96(3), 553–564. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003055402000321
- LaFree, G. D. (1981). Official reactions to social problems: Police decisions in sexual assault cases. Social Problems, 28(5), 582–594. https://doi.org/10.2307/800232
- Lapsey, D. S., Jr., Campbell, B. A., & Plumlee, B. T. (2021). Focal concerns and police decision making in sexual assault cases: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Trauma, Violence, and Abuse, 23(4), 1220–1234. https://doi.org/10.1177/1524838021991285
- Lavee, E., & Cohen, N. (2019). How street-level bureaucrats become policy entrepreneurs: The case of urban renewal. Governance, 32(3), 475–492. https://doi.org/10.1111/gove.12387
- Lipsky, M. (2010). Street level bureaucracy: Dilemmas of the individual in public services ( 30th Anniversary Expanded Edition). The Russell Sage Foundation.
- Marvel, J. D. (2015). Gender congruence and work effort in manager–employee relationships. Public Administration Review, 75(3), 455–468. https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12355
- Meier, K. J. (1993). Latinos and representative bureaucracy: Testing the Thompson and henderson hypotheses. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 3(4), 393–414.
- Meier, K. J., & Morton, T. S. M. (2015). Representative bureaucracy in a cross-national context: Politics, identity, structure and discretion. In B. G. Peters, P. Maravic, & E. Schröter (Eds.), Politics of representative bureaucracy: Power, legitimacy, and performance (pp. 94–112). Edward Elgar Publishing.
10.4337/9780857936011.00009 Google Scholar
- Meier, K. J., & Nicholson-Crotty, J. (2006). Gender, representative bureaucracy, and law enforcement: The case of sexual assault. Public Administration Review, 66(6), 850–860. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2006.00653.x
- Meier, K. J., Pennington, M. S., & Eller, W. S. (2005). Race, sex, and Clarence Thomas: Representation change in the EEOC. Public Administration Review, 65(2), 171–179. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2005.00442.x
- Mesch, G. S., & Talmud, I. (1998). The influence of community characteristics on police performance in a deeply divided society: The case of Israel. Sociological Focus, 31(3), 233–248. https://doi.org/10.1080/00380237.1998.10571104
10.1080/00380237.1998.10571104 Google Scholar
- Miller, A. R., & Segal, C. (2019). Do female officers improve law enforcement quality? Effects on crime reporting and domestic violence. The Review of Economic Studies, 86(5), 2220–2047. https://doi.org/10.1093/restud/rdy051
- Muhlhausen, D. B. (2019). Women in policing: Breaking barriers and blazing a path. National Institute of Justice Special Report. Retrieved November 10, 2020 https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/252963.pdf
- Muir, W. K., Jr. (1977). Police: Street corner politicians. The University of Chicago Press.
- Nicholson-Crotty, S., Nicholson-Crotty, J., & Fernandez, S. (2017). Will more black cops matter? Officer race and police-involved homicides of black citizens. Public Administration Review, 77(2), 206–216. https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12734
- O’Neal, E. N. (2019). Victim is not credible: The influence of rape culture on police perceptions of sexual assault complainants. Justice Quarterly, 36(1), 127–160. https://doi.org/10.1080/07418825.2017.1406977
- Page, A. D. (2008a). Gateway to reform? Police implications of police officers’ attitudes towards rape. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 33(1), 44–58. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12103-007-9024-9
10.1007/s12103-007-9024-9 Google Scholar
- Page, A. D. (2008b). Judging women and defining crime: Police officers' attitudes toward women and rape. Sociological Spectrum, 28(4), 389–411. https://doi.org/10.1080/02732170802053621
- Page, A. D. (2010). True colors: Police officers and rape myth acceptance. Feminist Criminology, 5(4), 315–334. https://doi.org/10.1177/1557085110384108
- Paoline, E. A. (2003). Taking stock: Toward a richer understanding of police culture. Journal of Criminal Justice, 31(3), 199–214. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0047-2352(03)00002-3
- Park, S., & Mwihambi, Y. C. (2021). Intergovernmental representation at different levels of government: The effect of gender representation. Public Administration Review, 82(4), 721–732. https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13440
- Paustian-Underdahl, S. C., Walker, L. S., & Woehr, D. J. (2014). Gender and perceptions of leadership effectiveness: A meta-analysis of contextual moderators. Journal of Applied Psychology, 99(6), 1129–1145. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0036751
- Pearson-Goff, M., & Herrington, V. (2014). Police leadership: A systematic review of the literature. Policing: Journal of Policy Practice, 8(1), 14–26. https://doi.org/10.1093/police/pat027
10.1093/police/pat027 Google Scholar
- Peters, B. G., Schröter, E., & von Maravic, P. (2015). Delivering public services in multi-ethnic societies: The challenge of representativeness. In B. G. Peters, P. Maravic, & E. Schröter (Eds.), Politics of representative bureaucracy: Power, legitimacy, and performance (pp. 1–23). Edward Elgar Publishing.
10.4337/9780857936011.00005 Google Scholar
- Police Executive Research Forum. (2018). Executive guidebook: Practical approaches for strengthening law enforcement’s response to sexual assault. Retrieved December 1, 2020 https://www.policeforum.org/assets/SexualAssaultResponseExecutiveGuidebook.pdf
- Riccucci, N. M., Norma, M., Van Ryzin, G. G., & Jackson, K. (2018). Representative bureaucracy, race, and policing: A Survey experiment. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 28(4), 506–518. https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/muy023
- Riccucci, N. M., & Van Ryzin, G. G. (2017). Representative bureaucracy: A lever to enhance social equity, coproduction, and democracy. Public Administration Review, 77(1), 21–30. https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12649
- Riccucci, N. M., Van Ryzin, G. G., & Lavena, C. F. (2014). Representative bureaucracy in policing: Does it increase perceived legitimacy? Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 24(3), 537–551. https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/muu006
- Rodriguez, G. (2007). Poisson models for count data. [Lecture notes]. Princeton University. https://data.princeton.edu/wws509/notes/c4.pdf
- Shaw, J., Campbell, R., Cain, D., & Feeney, H. (2017). Beyond surveys and scales: How rape myths manifest in sexual assault police records. Psychology of Violence, 7(4), 602–614. https://doi.org/10.1037/vio0000072
- Shoub, K., Stauffer, K. E., & Song, M. (2021). De female officers police differently? Evidence from traffic stops. American Journal of Political Science, 65(3), 755–769. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12618
- Skogan, W. G. (2008). Why reforms fail? Policing and Society, 18(1), 23–34. https://doi.org/10.1080/10439460701718534
- Sleath, E., & Bull, R. (2012). Comparing rape victim and perpetrator blaming in a police officer sample: Differences between police officers with and without special training. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 39(5), 646–665. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093854811434696
- Smith, M., Wilkes, N., & Bouffard, L. A. (2016). Rape myth adherence among campus law enforcement officers. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 43(4), 539–556. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093854815604178
- Song, M. (2018). Gender representation and student performance: Representative bureaucracy goes to Korea. The American Review of Public Administration, 48(4), 346–358. https://doi.org/10.1177/0275074016676888
- Sowa, J. E., & Selden, S. C. (2003). Administrative discretion and active representation: An explanation of the theory of representative bureaucracy. Public Administration Review, 63(3), 700–710. https://doi.org/10.1111/1540-6210.00333
- Tasca, M., Rodriguez, N., Spohn, C., & Mary, P. K. (2013). Police decision making in sexual assault cases: Predictors of suspect identification and arrest. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 28(6), 1157–1177. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260512468233
- Thompson, F. J. (1976). Minority groups in public bureaucracies: Are passive and active representation linked? Administration and Society, 8(2), 201–226. https://doi.org/10.1177/009539977600800206
- Van Maanen, J. (1983). The boss: First-line supervision in an American police agency. In M. Punch (Ed.), Contro in the police organization (pp. 275–317). MIT Press.
- Van Maanen, J. (1984). Making rank: Becoming an American police sergeant. Urban Life, 13(2), 155–176. https://doi.org/10.1177/0098303984013002002
10.1177/0098303984013002002 Google Scholar
- Walfield, S. M. (2016). When a cleared rape is not cleared: A multilevel study of arrest and exceptional clearance. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 31(9), 1767–1792. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260515569062
- Wilkins, V. M., & Williams, B. N. (2008). Black or blue: Racial profiling and representative bureaucracy. Public Administration Review, 68(4), 654–664. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2008.00905.x
- Wilson, J. Q. (1968). Varieties of police behavior. Harvard University Press.
10.4159/9780674045200 Google Scholar
- Yang, Y., & Konrad, A. M. (2011). Diversity and organizational innovation: The role of employee involvement. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 32(8), 1062–1083. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.724