A stereotype is an oversimplified generalization about a certain group of people. In most cases, these stereotypes are based on ethnicity, race, gender, sexual orientation and age. In the current society, stereotyping has been a major issue, especially in the law enforcement sector. This is because they put a label about how certain individual act or live which eventually affect the way they do their things. As Oakes, Haslam, and Turner (2014) hold, stereotypes are negative schemata for social groups. They are a kind of cognitive framework for interpreting as well as studying social information. They strongly influence the incoming information and the processing of the same information. Oakes, Haslam, and Turner (2014), therefore confirms that a stereotype to a greater extent induces a person to bring supporting information to the mind.
Stereotyping develops in the same manner prejudices and attitude develops. Group norms and reference, social learning, and social perception play a significant role in the development of stereotypes. Additionally, stereotypes are based on rumors, anecdotes, stories and sometimes the experience of an individual. According to extensive studies, stereotypes play a very crucial role in the development of prejudice, national as well as international tensions. They also control, determine and direct social behavior. The relationship with parents, eating habits, seniors and juniors, sexual behavior, family members, traditions as well as customs of marriage celebrations are some of the situations that are controlled by stereotypes.
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Apart from sexual behavior, stereotypes also control different creeds, castes, and communities. Likewise, stereotypes also affect perception and judgment of social objects. In this case, they act as a justificatory device for categorical acceptance, rejection of a group, screening or selecting device that help in sustaining simplicity in thinking as well as perception. In a nutshell, stereotyping in law enforcement affect how people think about each other, behave and perpetuate inequality. Several areas are affected by stereotypes. One of the key areas that are substantially impacted by stereotyping is law enforcement in the community as well as in organizations. This paper, therefore, seeks to discuss the impact of stereotyping on law enforcement, particularly in the community and in the organization. It will further elaborate on the trends that exist among law enforcement in addressing stereotyping in law enforcement.
Stereotyping is a dynamic issue scientifically and politically and often pose dire challenges for law enforcement officers. Stereotypes cause people involved in law enforcement to treat people or groups in a certain way based on the preconceived notions about that person. The negative impacts that stereotypes cause in individuals are numerous. Some of these stereotypes cause harm, poor performance, and even health problems. In the Long-term Effects of Stereotyping article, Nauert argues on how individuals can be affected by stereotypes when exposed to them. His argument was based on a study conducted by the University of Toronto. According to Nauert (2018), people who get hurt by stereotypes are likely to be aggressive after facing prejudice in a given situation. This consequently affects their performance in different task. They are likely to exhibit a lack of self-control which affects their decision making. The study by Nauert demonstrates how people are negatively affected by negative stereotypes.
As much as bad stereotypes cause negative effects on people, good stereotypes are sometimes harmful to people. According to the article “Why Stereotypes are bad even when they are good”, Fridkin and Kenney (2009) retort how good stereotypes develop problems such as racism and sexism. Positive stereotypes can be harmful in different circumstances without people realizing that they are doing so. In this study, participants were exposed to fake articles that relate to black people. The first article was positive and revealed that black people are good at sports and the other article was negative and indicated that black people are prone to violence. From this study, the positive stereotypes led to stronger negative beliefs about black individuals as compared to a negative one.
In addition to affecting decision making in law enforcement, stereotyping also create a misconception of how people are and how they live in other religions, cultures or countries. This misconception has caused problems such as discrimination. Discrimination is a significant issue in a multicultural society. Numerous researches suggest that police awareness on the trend of street crime tend to form an impression of the likelihood that individuals belonging to different racial groups commit certain types of crimes, particularly those crimes that are related to drug crimes. Such perceptions make the police to undertake racial profiling which has consequences of developing a cycle of profiling of suspected offenders regardless of the precision of these perceptions.
From this study, two pathways to police offices’ investigative decision-making were found. These pathways indicated that any negative stereotypes based on suspect’s group membership can influence the investigative decision-making of officers which affect the outcome of criminal investigations. A significant cause of poor investigative decision-making is a failure of decision-makers to identify all possible options before evaluating and integrating information to arrive at a choice. It is important to recognize the influence of any unconscious stereotypes within the context of criminal investigations to be a starting point for a transparent and effective policing of marginalized communities (Oakes, Haslam and &Turner, 2014). This study demonstrates how the impact of stereotyping in law enforcement can affect decision making in police officers. The consequences of stereotypes in law enforcement in the community and organizations are dire. If officers depend on stereotypes instead of facts, routine encounters can increase or become deadly.
In recent years, the government of the United States has made excellent steps in addressing stereotyping in law enforcement. Innovations in policing and other aspects of the justice system have made a tremendous improvement in police accountability which has reduced the extent to which the harshest aspects of criminal justice fall disproportionately on communities. As much as tremendous steps have been made to address stereotyping, United States need to embrace a smarter approach that recognizes the impact of stereotyping in law enforcement rather than concentrating on race as the ultimate answer to develop safe communities. The failure to ensure that the legal and judicial systems in the United States treat all Americans equally has divided many of America’s communities. As Americans, there is a need to build an inclusive community where every family thrives and where compassion is the core value.
Notably, numerous trends among law enforcement have been made in addressing stereotyping in law enforcement. One of the trends that have been made to address law enforcement is increasing the use of special prosecutors in police misconduct investigations. Over the recent past years, many states have provided state attorney general to provide a level of insulation from local law enforcement. The work of this special attorney general is to oversight, investigate and prosecute police who engage in unlawful offenses that result from stereotyping. Enhancing data collection on fatalities involving police is another trend that has been developed to address stereotyping in law enforcement.
The federal government has improved data collection by demanding local and state law enforcement to provide comprehensive information about harassments and deaths that are caused by police officers. This legislation has played a significant role in addressing the current data gap on police fatalities. For this legislation to have a maximum beneficial impact, various administrations must implement detailed regulations that outline what kind of information to be reported to ensure that states report relevant information or other key details that precipitate the impact of stereotyping of law enforcement in the community or organization. Apart from enhancing data collection on fatalities involving the police, the government has implemented implicit bias training for all federal law enforcement officers, state and local police involved in federal task forces. Training is the most promising policy that is being used by the government to mitigate the effects of bias that result from stereotyping in law enforcement. As much as training does not minimize police biases in America, it increases consciousness about law enforcement. As opined by Fridkin and Kenney (2009), making someone aware of unconscious biases can decrease malleable biases at a large extent.
Apart from training, police departments have been encouraged to take steps that increase diversity among law enforcement professionals. In this regard, the composition of law enforcement personnel should reflect the dynamism of the communities it serves. To further reduce this kind of stereotype, the government should train implicit bias in police academies, state and local departmental training. Law enforcement recruits ought to be challenged to identify significant policy scenarios and decisions that are at the greatest risk of manifesting bias such as consent searches, traffic stops and reasonable suspicion to frisk. Finally, law enforcement agencies need to ignore stereotypes that come from race, culture, and age and start acknowledging individual and real group differences through diversity as well as multicultural training.
Increasing the federal government oversight of law enforcement conducts is another trend that has been developed in addressing stereotyping in law enforcement. The government has started involving itself in issues that relate to police misconduct. In case of any complaints that originate from stereotyping, the federal government conducts extensive investigations which often result in consent decrees that reform police practices in the jurisdiction. The Depart of Justice (DOJ) Office for Civil Rights has started to engage in proactive activity that shapes police practices on the ground, especially in communities across the country (Hall, A. Hall, E & Perry, 2016).
Apart from engaging in proactive activity, the DOJ has started issuing some general guidance in police departments that are a lesson learned that originate from the pattern and practice investigations of individual police departments along with innovative practices and policies that have arisen from those investigations. It is therefore important for the DOJ to take a more active approach in setting the expectation of police conduct nationwide and ensure compliance with their standards by conditioning law enforcement in adopting certain policies, standards, and training. The federal government should also ensure law enforcement officers in communities and organizations around the country do not violate people’s right as a result of stereotypes.
Conclusively, there are several impacts of stereotyping in law enforcement in the community as well as the organization. Stereotyping in law enforcement has a great impact on investigative decision making. One notable cause of poor investigative decision-making is a failure of decision-makers to identify all possible options before evaluating and integrating information to arrive at a choice. Additionally, stereotyping in law enforcement develops misconception on how people are and live in a given religion, culture or place. These misconceptions may result in discrimination which is a major problem in a multicultural society. Apart from creating misconceptions, stereotyping also result in biases which make the police to undertake racial profiling that has consequences of developing a cycle of profiling of suspected offenders. Over the recent past, significant trends among law enforcements have developed to address stereotypes. Training of law enforcement officers, increasing government oversight, improving data collection stereotyping cases as well as increasing the use of special prosecutors in police misconduct investigations are some the trends that developed to address stereotyping in law enforcement.
References
Hall, A. V., Hall, E. V., & Perry, J. L. (2016). Black and blue: Exploring racial bias and law enforcement in the killings of unarmed black male civilians. American Psychologist , 71 (3), 175.
Fridkin, K. L., & Kenney, P. J. (2009). The role of gender stereotypes in US Senate campaigns. Politics & Gender , 5 (3), 301-324.
Nauert, R. (2018). Long term effects of stereotyping. Psych Central.
Oakes, P. J., Haslam, S. A., & Turner, J. C. (2014). Stereotyping and social reality . Blackwell Publishing.
