Exploring Gendered Environments in Policing: Workplace Incivilities and Fit Perceptions in Men and Women Officers

Research indicates that women are still underrepresented in policing and that police culture is not fully accepting of its sisters in blue. As police organizations strive toward building an inclusive workforce, we must understand how women, already in the field, view their place and experiences within their jobs, organizations, and workgroups. Thus, in the current research, we use a comparative sample (n¼832) of male and female officers to examine perceptions of fit in the job, organization, and workgroup, and how these perceptions relate to reports of workplace incivilities. Findings indicate that women fit in with the job and the broader agency, but they are less likely than men to feel they belong within their workgroup. This relationship was partially mediated by workplace incivilities, indicating that women’s experience of subtle forms of discrimination partially explains their lower levels of fit in their workgroup

Examining police officers’ perceptions of stress: the role of Person−environment fit

Purpose The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between officer perceptions of fit in their organization and stress (organizational and operational), overall job satisfaction and turnover contemplation (within the last 6 months). Design/methodology/approach The authors used cross-sectional survey data from a sample of 832 officers from two Midwest police departments to examine the relationships between fit, stress and work-related attitudes. Findings Perceived stress and organizational fit were strong predictors of overall job satisfaction and turnover contemplation; organizational fit accounted for the most variation in stress, satisfaction and turnover contemplation. Organizational stress partially mediated the relationship between organizational fit and job satisfaction and organizational fit and turnover contemplation. Research Implications More research is needed to identify predictors of organizational fit perceptions among police officers. Practical implications Findings indicate that agencies should pay close attention to the organizational culture and structure when trying to address issues of officer well-being and retention. Further, the person−environment framework can be a useful tool in examining police occupational outcomes. Originality/value The authors findings contribute to research on officer stress by exploring perceptions of organizational fit as a predictor of stress and unpacking how officer stress matters to important work outcomes, including job satisfaction and thoughts of turnover, by considering stress as a mediator between organizational fit and these work outcomes

Gender, Personality, and Career Motivation in Policing

CPACS Urban Research Awards Part of the mission of the College of Public Affairs and Community Service (CPACS) is to conduct research, especially as it relates to concerns of our local and statewide constituencies. CPACS has always had an urban mission, and one way that mission is served is to preform applied research relevant to urban society in general, and the Omaha metropolitan area and other Nebraska urban communities in particular. Beginning in 2014, the CPACS Dean provided funding for the projects with high relevance to current urban issues, with the potential to apply the findings to practice in Nebraska, Iowa, and beyond

Probing complex RNA structures by mechanical force

RNA secondary structures of increasing complexity are probed combining single molecule stretching experiments and stochastic unfolding/refolding simulations. We find that force-induced unfolding pathways cannot usually be interpretated by solely invoking successive openings of native helices. Indeed, typical force-extension responses of complex RNA molecules are largely shaped by stretching-induced, long-lived intermediates including non-native helices. This is first shown for a set of generic structural motifs found in larger RNA structures, and then for Escherichia coli's 1540-base long 16S ribosomal RNA, which exhibits a surprisingly well-structured and reproducible unfolding pathway under mechanical stretching. Using out-of-equilibrium stochastic simulations, we demonstrate that these experimental results reflect the slow relaxation of RNA structural rearrangements. Hence, micromanipulations of single RNA molecules probe both their native structures and long-lived intermediates, so-called "kinetic traps", thereby capturing -at the single molecular level- the hallmark of RNA folding/unfolding dynamics.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figure

Why Did You Become a Police Officer? Entry-Related Motives and Concerns of Women and Men in Policing

As police agencies in the United States suffer declining applications and struggle to recruit women, the National Institute of Justice has identified workforce development as a priority research area. To recruit more effectively, we must understand what attracts people to policing and what deters them. We surveyed officers in two Midwestern police departments (n = 832) about entry motivations and concerns and examined gender differences. Serve/protect motivations were most important for men and women, though women rated the category significantly higher. Women and non-White officers rated legacy motives higher than did males and White officers. Women reported more concerns overall and scored higher on job demands and acceptance concerns; officers of color also reported more acceptance concerns than White officers. The largest gender differences were associated with gender-related obstacles and stereotypes (e.g., discrimination; being taken seriously; physical demands), indicating recruitment reform necessarily includes improving systemic issues

Who Dreams of Badges? Gendered Self-Concept and Policing Career Aspirations

NIJ’s Policing Research Plan (2017-2022) highlights the need to understand factors that attract diverse candidates. We explored whether college students had ever considered policing and found men were significantly more likely than women to contemplate policing careers. Further, we found higher levels of masculinity were associated with greater odds of policing aspirations; the relationship between gender and aspirations was fully mediated by masculine self-concept. Although men typically reported higher masculinity scores, within-gender analyses indicated that masculinity was important for both men and women. Our findings suggest the continued association of masculinity with policing may undercut efforts to recruit a representative workforce

Structure and pressure drop of real and virtual metal wire meshes

An efficient mathematical model to virtually generate woven metal wire meshes is presented. The accuracy of this model is verified by the comparison of virtual structures with three-dimensional images of real meshes, which are produced via computer tomography. Virtual structures are generated for three types of metal wire meshes using only easy to measure parameters. For these geometries the velocity-dependent pressure drop is simulated and compared with measurements performed by the GKD - Gebr. Kufferath AG. The simulation results lie within the tolerances of the measurements. The generation of the structures and the numerical simulations were done at GKD using the Fraunhofer GeoDict software

How Did You Become a Police Officer? Entry-Related Motives and Concerns of Women and Men in Policing

As police agencies in the United States suffer declining applications and struggle to recruit women, the National Institute of Justice has identified workforce development as a priority research area. To recruit more effectively, we must understand what attracts people to policing and what deters them. We surveyed officers in two Midwestern police departments (n = 832) about entry motivations and concerns and examined gender differences. Serve/protect motivations were most important for men and women, though women rated the category significantly higher. Women and non-White officers rated legacy motives higher than did males and White officers. Women reported more concerns overall and scored higher on job demands and acceptance concerns; officers of color also reported more acceptance concerns than White officers. The largest gender differences were associated with gender-related obstacles and stereotypes (e.g., discrimination; being taken seriously; physical demands), indicating recruitment reform necessarily includes improving systemic issues

Bioorthogonal protein-DNA conjugation methods for force spectroscopy.

Accurate and stable site-specific attachment of DNA molecules to proteins is a requirement for many single-molecule force spectroscopy techniques. The most commonly used method still relies on maleimide chemistry involving cysteine residues in the protein of interest. Studies have consequently often focused on model proteins that either have no cysteines or with a small number of cysteines that can be deleted so that cysteines can then be introduced at specific sites. However, many proteins, especially in eukaryotes, contain too many cysteine residues to be amenable to this strategy, and therefore there is tremendous need for new and broadly applicable approaches to site-specific conjugation. Here we present bioorthogonal approaches for making DNA-protein conjugates required in force spectroscopy experiments. Unnatural amino acids are introduced site-specifically and conjugated to DNA oligos bearing the respective modifications to undergo either strain-promoted azidealkyne cycloaddition (SPAAC) or inverse-electron-demand Diels-Alder (IE-DA) reactions. We furthermore show that SPAAC is compatible with a previously published peptide-based attachment approach. By expanding the available toolkit to tag-free methods based on bioorthogonal reactions, we hope to enable researchers to interrogate the mechanics of a much broader range of proteins than is currently possible