Female attrition from the police profession
Policing: An International Journal
ISSN: 1363-951X
Article publication date: 3 April 2020
Issue publication date: 9 April 2020
Abstract
Purpose
Do female police recruits drop out of police education and/or leave the profession more often than men, and has this changed over time? Can gender differences be explained by the background characteristics and family obligations of the recruits?
Design/methodology/approach
This paper employs administrative registry data covering all individuals admitted to the police academy (1995–2010, N = 6570) and all academy recruits employed in the Norwegian police (1992–2014, N = 7301). The paper analyses the data using discrete-time logistic regression and coarsened exact matching.
Findings
The levels of dropout and attrition are generally low. However, female recruits have a somewhat greater tendency both to drop out of education and to leave the force. The gender differences are quite stable, although the percentage of female recruits has risen sharply. Family obligations do not seem to explain female attrition from the police force.
Research limitations/implications
Because women tend to leave the police more often than men, further research is suggested in investigating female police recruits’ experiences. However, the relatively low level of dropout and limited gender differences also provide a reason to question whether stories of the police as a male-dominated profession not adapted to women are valid across time and in different settings.
Originality/value
This study provides exhaustive and detailed longitudinal data not previously available in studies of police careers. This study also tracks attrition in a period that has involved both increased numerical representation of women and changes in police culture, while accounting for other observable differences between male and female police officers. Contrary to common explanations, there is limited importance of family obligations and altered gender composition.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers and their colleagues at the Centre for the Study of Professions for their comments to earlier versions of this article. Any errors or omissions are the responsibility of the authors.
Citation
Alecu, A.I. and Bringsrud Fekjær, S. (2020), "Female attrition from the police profession", Policing: An International Journal, Vol. 43 No. 2, pp. 375-389. https://doi.org/10.1108/PIJPSM-09-2019-0147
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited