IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsoctx/v12y2022i4p100-d852740.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

“Being Diverse and Being Included, Don’t Go Together in Policing”—Diversity, Inclusion, and Australian Constables

Author

Listed:
  • Toby Miles-Johnson

    (School of Social Sciences, Western Sydney University, Liverpool, NSW 2710, Australia)

  • Suzanna Fay

    (School of Social Science, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia)

Abstract

Across the globe, there is little research that examines the impact of diversity on police practice, particularly whether it increases or decreases the competency of the police organization or whether police officers perceive diversity within the organization and the addition of diverse officers as positive or negative. Contributing new findings to the extant policing literature, this research analyzes data collected from interviews with forty-six constables working in one of the largest Australian state police organizations. Contributing five key findings regarding diversity and inclusion in policing, this research suggests that lack of acceptance of diversity broadly, and bias towards diverse identified officers, results in the exclusion of officers, and a workforce that is fragmented. The lack of unification constables in this research have with diverse colleagues is concerning given that a cohesive police team increases the safety of all officers, improves the effectiveness of police response, strengthens the communication between police and citizens (as well as communication within the organization), increases the morale of officers, and will support the legitimacy of the organization. Whilst constables in this study were not asked questions about their own implicit or explicit levels of bias towards members of diverse groups, the unsolicited responses from many of the constables, as well as the recognition of Whiteness in terms of the racial identity of many officers within the organization, suggests that constables in this study are biased towards officers that are not part of the majority group.

Suggested Citation

  • Toby Miles-Johnson & Suzanna Fay, 2022. "“Being Diverse and Being Included, Don’t Go Together in Policing”—Diversity, Inclusion, and Australian Constables," Societies, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-19, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsoctx:v:12:y:2022:i:4:p:100-:d:852740
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/12/4/100/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/12/4/100/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fridell, Lorie & Lim, Hyeyoung, 2016. "Assessing the racial aspects of police force using the implicit- and counter-bias perspectives," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 36-48.
    2. Toby Miles-Johnson, 2019. "Policing Diverse People: How Occupational Attitudes and Background Characteristics Shape Police Recruits’ Perceptions," SAGE Open, , vol. 9(3), pages 21582440198, July.
    3. Toby Miles-Johnson & Suzanna Fay & Susann Wiedlitzka, 2021. "Policing Minority Communities: How Perception of Engagement and Level of “Awareness” Influence Officer Attitudes toward Practice," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-23, February.
    4. Dietlind Stolle & Stuart Soroka & Richard Johnston, 2008. "When Does Diversity Erode Trust? Neighborhood Diversity, Interpersonal Trust and the Mediating Effect of Social Interactions," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 56(1), pages 57-75, March.
    5. Toby Miles-Johnson & Kate Linklater, 2022. "‘Rorting the System’: Police Detectives, Diversity, and Workplace Advantage," Societies, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-20, April.
    6. Jasmeet Gulati, 2018. "Is Othering Antithetical To Human Rights?," Proceedings of Law and Political Sciences Conferences 7909483, International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences.
    7. Paoline, Eugene A., 2003. "Taking stock: Toward a richer understanding of police culture," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 199-214.
    8. Dietlind Stolle & Stuart Soroka & Richard Johnston, 2008. "When Does Diversity Erode Trust? Neighborhood Diversity, Interpersonal Trust and the Mediating Effect of Social Interactions," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 56, pages 57-75, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Toby Miles-Johnson & Kate Linklater, 2022. "‘Rorting the System’: Police Detectives, Diversity, and Workplace Advantage," Societies, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-20, April.
    2. Kate Linklater, 2022. "Inclusion Capital: How Police Officers Are Included in Their Workplaces," Societies, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-19, September.
    3. Karl McShane, 2017. "Getting Used to Diversity? Immigration and Trust in Sweden," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 37(3), pages 1895-1910.
    4. Anne Marie Jeannet, 2017. "The Rational Public? Internal Migration and Collective Opinion about the European Union," Working Papers 103, "Carlo F. Dondena" Centre for Research on Social Dynamics (DONDENA), Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi.
    5. Haifeng Qian, 2013. "Diversity Versus Tolerance: The Social Drivers of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in US Cities," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 50(13), pages 2718-2735, October.
    6. Tesei, Andrea, 2015. "Trust and racial income inequality: evidence from the U.S," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 61029, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    7. Fernanda Bethlem Tigre & Paulo Lopes Henriques & Carla Curado, 2022. "Building trustworthiness: Leadership self-portraits," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 56(6), pages 3971-3991, December.
    8. Tak Wing Chan & Juta Kawalerowicz, 2022. "Social Diversity and Social Cohesion in Britain," DoQSS Working Papers 22-10, Quantitative Social Science - UCL Social Research Institute, University College London.
    9. Mavridis, Dimitris, 2015. "Ethnic Diversity and Social Capital in Indonesia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 376-395.
    10. Cary Wu, 2021. "How Stable is Generalized Trust? Internal Migration and the Stability of Trust Among Canadians," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 153(1), pages 129-147, January.
    11. Jeremy Horpedahl & Jeremy Jackson & David Mitchell, 2019. "Is Economic Freedom the Hidden Path to Social Justice?," Journal of Private Enterprise, The Association of Private Enterprise Education, vol. 34(Winter 20), pages 55-74.
    12. Kustov, Alexander & Pardelli, Giuliana, 2024. "Beyond Diversity: The Role of State Capacity in Fostering Social Cohesion in Brazil," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    13. Salomon, Katja, 2020. "Dynamics of immigrant resentment in Europe," Discussion Papers, Presidential Department P 2020-002, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    14. Koopmans, Ruud & Schaeffer, Merlin, 2016. "Statistical and Perceived Diversity and Their Impacts on Neighborhood Social Cohesion in Germany, France and the Netherlands," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 125(3), pages 853-883.
    15. Antti Kouvo & Carita Lockmer, 2013. "Imagine all the Neighbours: Perceived Neighbourhood Ethnicity, Interethnic Friendship Ties and Perceived Ethnic Threat in Four Nordic Countries," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 50(16), pages 3305-3322, December.
    16. Zheng Wu & Feng Hou & Christoph Schimmele & Adam Carmichael, 2018. "Co-ethnic concentration and trust in Canada’s urban neighbourhoods," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 55(10), pages 2159-2178, August.
    17. Gang Xu & Yuxin Liao & Yixin Jiang & Peiyao Xu & Lilin Yang & Wenhua Huang & Manru Zhang & Rong Wu, 2022. "The Impacts of Urban Environments on Community Trust of the Low-Income Group: A Case Study for the Pearl River Delta Region," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-14, December.
    18. Ali Recayi Ogcem & Ruth Tacneng & Amine Tarazi, 2021. "Trust and Financial Development: Forms of Trust and Ethnic Fractionalization Matter," Working Papers hal-03322592, HAL.
    19. Caitlin Bletscher & Sara Spiers, 2023. "“Step by Step We Were Okay Now”: An Exploration of the Impact of Social Connectedness on the Well-Being of Congolese and Iraqi Refugee Women Resettled in the United States," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(7), pages 1-27, March.
    20. Abdoulaye Diop & Yaojun Li & Majed Mohammmed H. A. Al-Ansari & Kien T. Le, 2017. "Social Capital and Citizens’ Attitudes towards Migrant Workers," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(1), pages 66-79.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsoctx:v:12:y:2022:i:4:p:100-:d:852740. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.