ABSTRACT
This chapter examines gendered policing in relation to violence against women. As we have seen throughout the world, women initially joined police forces in order to protect and control women and children. These police tasks worldwide have been defined as women’s work and so when women joined police forces, they were still doing gendered. Without women police, in most cases, violence against women has largely been ignored. The establishment of women’s units or specialist positions gives the police institution a way to continue hegemonic masculinity while allowing women to do women’s work. Furthermore, research has found that at the foundation of policing exists organizational violence. Resistance to women has manifested in subtle and not so subtle forms of sexual harassment and/or sexual assault of women police by male police. Furthermore, the organizational substructure and subtext within policing does not do enough to restrict this behavior. This chapter addresses gendered practices with a focus on sexual harassment and assault of women police and responding to intimate partner violence.
