[white men's opinions not wanted]
About 5 years ago one of my lecturers set up a meeting for me with an academic who had just started working at my university.
He was a criminological researcher doing a big project on sex workers, and she (my lecturer) thought we'd get along academically and I might possibly be interested in him as my eventual phd supervisor or something..
We had a chat over the course of about an hour, mostly about his research, but he asked at one point what I was thinking with regards to a phd topic.
At the time I was interested in looking at the incidence of sexual abuse within the police force, so I set out my argument to him:
We know that there is a much higher incidence of domestic violence perpetrated by police against their partners and kids.
We know that people reporting DV aren't taken seriously by the police they're reporting to, often to the extent where they are given misinformation like 'we can't act unless he actually *does* something'.
We know that people reporting sexual assault are often not taken seriously as well,and are often given misinformation like 'rape is actually really hard to prove, are you sure you want to report this?'.
...i wonder if there is a higher incidence of people with a history of perpetuating sexual assault in the police force?
...i wonder if they commit those assaults while in the police force, or if the job attracts people with that history?
Using the questionnaire from the Lisek & Miller study and the McWhorter study, I could survey students in a number of different fields and see if there is a higher number of people doing policing who self-report having used these rape-behaviors.
I could also do a follow up on the same students (although I'm not sure how because having the study not be anonymous would confound results) to see if their responses change after being in the police force for a number of years.
..he just looked at me and said that he doubted there was a higher incidence of DV perpetuated by police, and that he was certain that the reports that happened are angry partners targeting those cops with vexatious reports because they know it'll have big consequences for their careers.. and shut down the entire conversation immediately.
He's a critical criminologist, and wasn't interested in even having the slightest bit of curiosity about police being violent.
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"When she reported to police that he would repeatedly call her and hang up – an action she felt breached the apprehended domestic violence order she had taken out against him – she says an officer told her she was being a “vexatious ex-spouse” who was trying to cause trouble."
#AbolishPolice #Abolition #AbolishPrisons #CommunityNotCops #FuckThePolice #NoJusticeNoPeace #DomesticViolence #GenderedViolence #ViolenceAgainstWomen #VAW #Academia #Uni #university #Criminology #CriminalJustice
