This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Kim, P. S. Articles by Mengistu, B. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Women and Minorities in the Work Force of Law-Enforcement Agencies

Old Dominion University

Berhanu Mengistu

Old Dominion University

The idea of representative bureaucracy has provoked an important series of debates in the literature about police personnel management and representation of women and racial minorities. The critical questions in this study are: (a.) Does the sworn police force reasonably reflect a cross section of the groups being policed? and (b.) What factors are considered in representation of women and minority police officers in law-enforcement agencies? Black and Hispanic representation on police forces is closely associated with its presence in community populations. Regions vary in the degree of female and minority representation, blacks being better represented in southern police forces than elsewhere; women are better represented in the northwest. However, findings reveal that men, mostly whites, continue to hold disproportionately more sworn positions in most law-enforcement agencies. The models of female and minority representation also illustrate the degree of female and minority hiring by analyzing four major contributing factors: economic, organizational, demographic, and legal.

The American Review of Public Administration, Vol. 24, No. 2, 161-179 (1994)
DOI: 10.1177/027507409402400203


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?