Gendered messages in police recruitment

Abstract

Purpose Prior research established several important influences on the representation of women in policing, using a variety of secondary and primary data. The purpose of this paper is to examine how experimental manipulation of online recruitment materials impacts potential applicants. Design/methodology/approach The study relied on a census of 11 criminal justice courses taught at a public university, asking students to respond to an experimental vignette instrument (n=174). The 3×2 experimental vignette involved manipulation of two variables: the identification of recruits with diversity language (“individuals,” “women and men” or “a diverse group of individuals”) and mention or absence of discussion of physical fitness requirements. Findings Results largely run counter to prior research concerning women in policing, with women actually indicating increased probability of providing their contact information when encountering vignettes with physical fitness requirements. Originality/value This study demonstrates that small manipulations of recruitment content can have significant and gendered impact on potential applicants. This paper provides a foundation for empirical study of how changes in online recruitment materials impact a variety of relevant outcomes relating to applicant behaviors.

Influential Women? Policing Styles in Online Recruitment Materials

“…These agencies are more likely to use words evoking service to their community and present their departmental goals as aimed toward increasing public trust, engagement with the community, and their support. As some scholars have begun to study in the policing field (Aiello, 2019), styles of self-presentation may have important impacts on what type of candidate selects a department for application. In fact, reciprocal effects may exist, where higher female representation causes greater commitment to COP (within and beyond online recruitment materials), and this commitment encourages more female applicants, who then further develop COP principles in their department.…”

“…The concept focuses on the idea that modeling partially dictates the aspirations of individuals in a mediated society. This project is part of a larger body of scholarship investigating the gendered nature of policing (e.g., Crank, 2014;Prokos & Padavic, 2002) and, more specifically, police recruitment (Aiello, 2019;Cordner & Cordner, 2011). While researchers have begun to examine how police departments and human resources professions frame minimum sets of requirements as well as their ideal recruit via focus groups (Inzunza, 2016), a large-scale study of how American law enforcement agencies construct their occupation for potential applicants is missing.…”

Procedural Justice and Demographic Diversity: A Quasi-Experimental Study of Police Recruitment

“…Respondents were asked to carefully read the recruitment materials, and respond to attitudinal scales about working for "this kind of department." These measures included modified versions of questions used in an earlier study of attitudes towards police recruitment materials (Aiello, 2019) as well as a study of police applicants (Carless, 2005). The survey included five modified questions from Highhouse et al's (2003) job attraction scale.…”

“…Other research on recruitment attitudes also relied on generic discussions of police employment (Cambareri & Kuhns, 2018;Rossler et al, 2019), rather than asking about a specific job with a particular department. However, in Aiello's (2019) quasi-experimental design, the author used a specific local police department's online recruitment material as a basis for the variations. This lent greater external validity and 'mundane realism' to the recruitment materials than asking respondents to consider their job attitudes for applying to an agency like the fictional police department.…”

“…One of the first steps in addressing these imbalances is through outreach and recruitment of underrepresented groups. This project is part of a growing body of research examining how potential applicants respond to police recruitment materials (Aiello, 2019), and those examining candidates' perceptions of barriers to their employment (Cambareri & Kuhns 2018;Rossler et al, 2019). Decades of targeted outreach have not accomplished the goal of police forces more reflective of the communities they serve.…”