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Do Female Officers Improve Law Enforcement Quality? Effects on Crime Reporting and Domestic Violence

Author

Listed:
  • Amalia R Miller
  • Carmit Segal

Abstract

We study the impact of the integration of women in U.S. policing between the late 1970s and early 1990s on violent crime reporting and domestic violence (DV). Along these two key dimensions, we find that female officers improved police quality. Crime victimization data reveal that as female representation increases among officers in an area, violent crimes against women in that area, and especially DV, are reported to the police at significantly higher rates. There are no such effects for violent crimes against men or from increases in the female share of civilian police employees. Furthermore, increases in female officer shares are followed by significant declines in rates of intimate partner homicide and non-fatal domestic abuse. These effects are all consistent between fixed effects models with controls for economic and policy variables and models that focus exclusively on increases in female police employment driven by externally imposed affirmative action plans following litigation for employment discrimination.

Suggested Citation

  • Amalia R Miller & Carmit Segal, 2019. "Do Female Officers Improve Law Enforcement Quality? Effects on Crime Reporting and Domestic Violence," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 86(5), pages 2220-2247.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:restud:v:86:y:2019:i:5:p:2220-2247.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/restud/rdy051
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Women in policing; Occupational sex segregation; Crime reporting; Domestic violence; Intimate partner homicide; Affirmative action; Employment discrimination;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J78 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Public Policy (including comparable worth)
    • H76 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - Other Expenditure Categories
    • K14 - Law and Economics - - Basic Areas of Law - - - Criminal Law
    • K31 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Labor Law
    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law
    • N92 - Economic History - - Regional and Urban History - - - U.S.; Canada: 1913-
    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health

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