Robin N. Haarr

Gender, workplace problems, and stress in policing

This paper focuses on the connection of workplace problems with stress for women and men working in police departments. Field research was used to identify the problems that women experience in police departments, and quantitative measures were developed to measure these problems in a survey of women and men in 25 departments. Although women and men experience many of the same work-related problems, and although such problems account for a high proportion of workplace stress in both groups, the gendered nature of police organizations causes unique stressors for women. Overall, however, women do not report higher levels of stress than men.

Patterns of interaction in a police patrol bureau: Race and gender barriers to integration

This paper examines the effects of race and gender on patterns of interpersonal interaction in a police patrol bureau, and the organizational structural devices and cultural underpinnings that work together to obstruct the integration of women and blacks into the bureau. Analysis and interpretation of qualitative data gathered during field research in one midwestern police department are used to develop the subject. Gender and racial integration failed despite various organizational structural devices to “level the playing field” and carry out integration. No one single structural, political, or individual characteristic or condition appeared to be a decisive cause of the lack of integration. Instead, races and genders were divided by features of organizational life such as tensions, conflicts, and intraorganizational feuding about affirmative action, dual promotion lists, the decision-making process related to job assignments, police leagues in the department, and the presence of women in patrol.

Gender, race, and strategies of coping with occupational stress in policing

In this paper we identify a number of strategies that police officers use to cope with stress caused by problems in the workplace. We also compare coping strategies for gender and racial groups, and link differences to level of stress. Extensive observational data and a survey of 1,087 police officers in 24 departments were used to address the research questions. We found that African-Americans rely more strongly than Caucasians on bonds with other minorities, and that Caucasian officers more often use expression of feelings, trying to get others to like them, and camaraderie with coworkers. Women cope with stress by using escape and by keeping written records more often than men. The data also suggest that an officers stress-level group depends on the coping strategies he or she uses. Implications for future research are discussed, as are programs to help police develop effective strategies for coping with workplace problems.

Multilevel Influences on Police Stress

The prior literature has highlighted a variety of workplace problems, such as racial and gender bias and lack of influence over work activities, as influences on police stress. Additional explanations for police stress include community conditions, for example, high crime rates and size of the community, token status within the police organization, and lack of family and coworker support for work-related activities. In a large-sample, exploratory study, this research examined the workplace problems that were hypothesized to predict stress. It also determined whether community conditions, token status, and lack of social support explained additional variance in officers’ stress levels. Lack of influence over work activities and bias against one’s racial, gender, or ethnic group stood out as important predictors of stress after controls were introduced for demographic variables. Interventions to redesign jobs to afford greater influence and to reduce within-department bias are approaches that could reduce police officers’ stress.

Factors Affecting the Decision of Police Recruits to “Drop Out” of Police Work:

This study explores why police recruits “drop out” of police work within the first 16 months of their policing careers, including those reasons that maybe salient for women and racial/ethnic minorities and the usefulness of cognitive dissonance theory as an explanation for the “voluntary resignation” of police recruits in the early stages of police training and service. The sample of 113 “dropouts” was obtained as part of a longitudinal study of a panel sample of 446 police recruits who were followed through basic training, field training, and a 1-year probationary period. Data obtained via telephone interviews with 34 dropouts revealed that recruits dropped out of police work for three reasons: self-initiated resignation and academy-initiated and department-initiated termination. Recruits who self-initiated resignation experienced a conflict between the version of policing embodied in their ideal and the reality of policing in practice. For female officers, gender discrimination was woven into their resignation decision.

A Comparison of Programming for Women and Men in U.S. Prisons in the 1980s

This article examines programming for women in U.S. prisons in the 1980s, a decade marked by an increased number of incarcerated women and by court pressure to correct biases in programming. Data from a census of facilities and a sample of inmates reveal that regardless of gender, the prison experience does little to overcome marginalization from the workforce and leaves many who have history of drug abuse, or who are parents, untouched by relevant programming. Moreover, gender stereotypes shape the nature of the work and vocational training, and women disproportionately receive psychotropic drugs for mental health treatment.

Gender differences in the predictors of police stress

Purpose – The research compared the predictors of work‐related stress for policemen and policewomen. Stressors included workplace problems, token status in the organization, low family and coworker support, and community and organizational conditions.Design/methodology/approach – In 11 police departments, racial and ethnic minorities were oversampled. Of 2,051 officers sampled, 46.2 percent responded. Questions and scales were adapted from prior research on both males and females. Regression analysis revealed the strength of individual predictors of stress, the variance explained by workplace problems, and the additional variance explained by social support, token status, and community and organizational context.Findings – Workplace problems explained more males than females stress. Regardless of gender, the strongest predictor of stress was bias of coworkers, and a weaker predictor was language harassment. Just for males, lack of influence over work and appearance‐related stigmatization were additional...

Doing, Redoing, and Undoing Gender Variation in Gender Identities of Women Working as Police Officers

For a study of police women’s identities, qualitative data were generated from in-depth interviews with 21 women working in two metropolitan police departments and varying in race, ethnicity, rank, and tenure. Most women identified female-male differences but noted exceptions. Many felt characteristics concentrated among women enhanced job performance, and men’s characteristics damaged performance. Several insisted that sex-category differences in key attributes accounting for good police work were nonexistent or minimal. Women do not simply reproduce old female-male stereotypes and the hierarchies that devalue female-associated traits. They fashion complex, positive occupational identities that are not necessarily tied to their sex category.

“They’re making a bad name for the department”

Examines the link between level of organizational commitment and patrol officers’ attitudes toward and participation in police occupational deviance in a police patrol bureau. Uses analysis and interpretation of qualitative data gathered during field research in one mid‐sized police department to develop the subject. Field research was conducted over a seven‐month period, during which 580 hours of field observations were made and 48 unstructured interviews with patrol officers were conducted. Analysis disclosed that patrol officers with low levels of organizational commitment tended to engage in patterns of work avoidance and manipulation and employee deviance against the organization ‐ in contrast, patrol officers with high levels of commitment to the organization were likely to engage in employee deviance against the organization. Finally, patrol officers with a medium level of organizational commitment engaged in any of the three forms of deviance, depending on which end of the commitment continuum they tended toward. Claims that all patrol officers accepted informal rewards.

Wife abuse in Tajikistan.

In Tajikistan, wife abuse is a significant problem that has received virtually no attention from researchers or the government of Tajikistan. This descriptive study seeks to understand womens approval of wife abuse and the extent of wife abuse in Tajik womens lives. Four hundred women in three districts of Khatlon Oblast participated in this general population survey. Overall, most women approved of wife abuse by ones husband and/or mother-in-law and maintained that there were a wide range of so-called justifiable circumstances for wife abuse, particularly for behaviors that transgress expectations. A significant proportion of women also reported experiencing physical and sexual violence from their husbands, and a small proportion of women reported experiencing physical violence from their mothers-in-law. The studys implications for practice and future research on issues of wife abuse in Tajikistan are discussed.