Future Romanian Law Enforcement: Gender Differences in Perceptions of Police Misconduct

This exploratory study examines gender differences in the attitudes expressed by future Romanian police officers towardhypothetical instances of police misconduct. It also observes how severely respondents think police officers’ transgressions should bepunished and how eager they would be to report infractions. In order to measure police integrity and identify the future policeofficers’ potential for unethical behavior we applied the methodology developed in the 1990s by C. B. Klockars and his colleagues.The present quantitative analysis is based on survey data5 obtained in 2 010 from a convenience sample (N = 293) of students intheir final year of study at the Romanian Police Academy, who were enrolled in the Department of Police Studies and majoredin Public Order & Safety. Results show that, overall, female students perceive the seriousness of the misconduct cases as beingsignificantly higher than their male counterparts do. In general, when compared to men, women also tend to recommend moresevere disciplinary measures and are less inclined to tolerate misbehavior in silence.