Transgender Cops
Building on comparative research in the U.K. and the U.S.A., this is the first book focused specifically on transgender experiences within policing. It examines the issues faced by the transgender community within policing and explores how gender, and the non-conformity of it, is perceived within police cultures. Moreover, it provides an on-going critique of the queer criminology movement and why it is crucial to policing studies, emphasising the specific importance of transgender issues therein.
This empirical book provides qualitative data from American officers and English and Welsh constables on transgender police. The following research questions are addressed: What are the perceptions of cisgender officers towards transgender officers, and what are the consequences of these perceptions? What are the occupational experiences and perceptions of officers who identify as transgender within policing? Finally, what are the reported positive and negative administrative issues that transgender individuals face within policing? The author concludes by discussing the empirical, theoretical and policy contributions of this research and offers some final thoughts on policy recommendations and directions for future research.
A strong contribution to the literature in critical criminology and queer criminology, this book will also be of interest to those in the fields of gender studies, sociology, public administration, management studies and policing studies.
Dr Heather Panter is a retired police detective with over 2,000 hours of police-specific training and a combined 13 years of American law enforcement experience with local and federal police agencies. Currently, she is a senior lecturer at Liverpools John Moore University where she is a programme leader in the BSc in Policing and Forensics and the programme leader in the MSc in Policing and Criminal Investigations.
Routledge Critical Studies in Crime, Diversity and Criminal Justice
Edited by Sharon Hayes
University of Newcastle, Australia and Patricia Faraldo Cabana
University of A Corua, Spain
The works in this series strive to generate new conceptual and theoretical frameworks to address the legal, organisational and normative responses to the challenges that diversity and intersectionality present to criminal justice systems. This series aims to present cutting edge empirically informed theoretical works from both new and established scholars around the world.
Drawing upon a range of disciplines including sociology, law, history, economics and social work, the series encourages different approaches to questions of mobility and exclusion with a cross-section of theorists, empiricists and critical policy researchers. It will be key reading for scholars who are working in criminal justice, criminology, criminal law and human rights, as well as those in the fields of gender and LGBTI studies, migration studies, anthropology, refugee studies and post-colonial studies.
Gender Responsive Justice
A Critical Appraisal
Karen Evans
The Political Economy of Punishment Today
Visions, Debates and Challenges
Edited by Dario Melossi, Mximo Sozzo and Jos A. Brandariz-Garca
Transgender Cops
The Intersection of Gender and Sexuality Expectations in Police Cultures
Heather Panter
www.routledge.com/criminology/series/CDCJ
Transgender Cops
The Intersection of Gender and Sexuality Expectations in Police Cultures
Heather Panter
First published 2018
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
2018 Heather Panter
The right of Heather Panter to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-1-138-22387-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-40370-0 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear
This book is dedicated to those who unselfishly gave it all in policing, and those who still continue to make sacrifices. This book is also dedicated to the brave individuals in policing who challenge occupational biases and stay true to themselves.
Contents
Illustrations
Figures
2.1 Differential treatment of LGB police
2.2 Trans reported harassment and assault perpetrated by police officers
2.3 Trans reported opinions on interactions with police officers
2.4 Trans comfort levels in seeking police assistance when needed
4.1 Author during assignment to a narcotics warrant entry team
6.1 Screen-shot of e-mail from an American participant
8.1 Transition policies and leadership
Tables
1.1 How the term heterosexism has been historically defined in social science literature
2.1 Prevalence of discrimination among LGB police
5.1 Previous LGBT+ standpoint researchers
5.2 Participant demographics
6.1 Cisgender participants
7.1 American transgender officer participants
7.2 English and Welsh transgender constable participants
8.1 American transgender officer participants
8.2 English and Welsh transgender constable participants
8.3 American participants disclosure of formal administration punishment, or threatened administrative punishment
8.4 English and Welsh participants disclosure of formal administration punishment, or threatened administrative punishment
Series editor foreword
I am extremely pleased to be able to write the Foreword to this wonderful book. Not only is it timely, but it delivers a virtual treasure chest of empirical evidence and theoretical analysis on transgender police and the attitudes and contexts within which they work. As a retired police detective with a combined 13 years of American law enforcement experience with local and federal police agencies, and as a committed and vocal activist for LGBT+ in policing, academia and beyond, Heather Panter has the credibility as well as the skill to attack this task. Her research compares police culture between the United States and the United Kingdom with respect to officers cognitive and social perceptions of LGBT+ identities, in a way that is both rigorous and compelling.