Most victims of antigay/lesbian hate crimes never report these crimes to police for fear of hostility and abuse. Similarly, lesbian/gay officers fear a negative response if they come out at work. Research assumes but has not shown that dislike of lesbians and gay men translates into negative behavior. This article employs original survey data to examine the relationship between attitudes and behavior toward lesbians and gays among subsets of sworn officers. We employ the concept “sexual project” to argue that this relationship is shaped by experiences that determine respondents' relationship to (homo)sexuality, masculinity, and civil rights. We conclude by outlining implications of homophobic attitudes within law enforcement.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Adam, B. D.
(1998). Theorizing homophobia. Sexualities, 1, 387-404.
2.
Allport, G. W.
(1954). The nature of prejudice. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
3.
American Civil Liberties Union
. (2001). Crime and punishment in America: State by-state breakdown of sodomy laws. Retrieved July 2001 from www.aclu.org/issues/gay/sodomy.html
4.
Badgett, M. V.
(1995). The wage effects of sexual orientation discrimination. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 48, 726-739.
5.
Baker, J. G.
, & Fishbein, H. D. (1998). The development of prejudice towards gays and lesbians by adolescents. Journal of Homosexuality, 36, 89-100.
6.
Bennett, M.
, & Battle, J. (2001). “We can see them, but we can't hear them”: LGBT members of African American families. In M. Bernstein & R. Reimann (Eds.), Queer families, queer politics: Challenging culture and the state (pp. 53-67). New York: Columbia University Press.
7.
Bernstein, M.
(1997a). Celebration and suppression: The strategic uses of identity by the lesbian and gay movement. American Journal of Sociology, 103, 531-565.
8.
Bernstein, M. (1997b). Sexual orientation policy, protest, and the state. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, New York University.
9.
Bernstein, M. (in press). Identities and politics: Toward a historical understanding of the lesbian and gay movement. Social Science History.
10.
Bernstein, M.
, Kostelac, C., & Gaarder, E. (n.d.). Beyond “homophobia”: Applying theories of racial prejudice to heterosexism, using data from a southwestern police department. Unpublished manuscript.
11.
Berrill, K. T.
(1992). Anti-gay violence and victimization in the United States: An overview. In G. M. Herek & K. T. Berrill (Eds.), Hate crimes: Confronting violence against lesbians and gay men (pp. 19-45). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
12.
Black, B.
, Oles, T. P., & Moore, L. (1998). The relationship between attitudes: Homophobia and sexism among social work students. Affilia, 13, 166-189.
13.
Bobo, L. D.
(1999). Prejudice as group position: Micro foundations of a sociological approach to racism and race relations. Journal of Social Issues, 55, 445-472.
14.
Bobo, L.
, & Hutchings, V. L. (1996). Perceptions of racial group competition: Extending Blumer's theory of group position to a multiracial social context. American Sociological Review, 61, 951-972.
15.
Britton, D. M.
(1990). Homophobia and homosociality: An analysis of boundary maintenance. The Sociological Quarterly, 31, 423-439.
16.
Buhrke, R. A.
(1996). A matter of justice: Lesbians and gay men in law enforcement. New York: Routledge.
17.
Burke, M.
(1994). Homosexuality as deviance: The case of the gay police officer. British Journal of Criminology, 34, 192-203.
18.
Case, C.
, Greeley, A. M., & Fuchs, S. (1989). Social determinants of racial prejudice. Sociological Perspectives, 32, 469-483.
19.
Christopher Commission
. (1991). Report of the independent commission on the Los Angeles police department. Los Angeles: Author.
20.
Comstock, G. D.
(1991). The police as perpetrators of anti-gay/lesbian violence. In G. D. Comstock (Ed.), Violence against lesbians and gay men (pp. 152-162, Appendix C). New York: Columbia University Press.
21.
Connell, R. W.
(1995). Masculinities. Berkeley: University of California Press.
22.
Croteau, J. M.
(1996). Research on the work experiences of lesbian, gay, and bisexual people: An integrative review of methodology and findings. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 48, 195-209.
23.
Doss, M. T., Jr.
(1990). Police management: Sexual misconduct and the right to privacy. Journal of Police Science and Administration, 17, 194-204.
24.
Estrada, A. X.
, & Weiss, D. J. (1999). Attitudes of military personnel toward homosexuals. Journal of Homosexuality, 37, 83-97.
25.
Federal Bureau of Investigation
. (2000). National uniform crime report: Hate crimes 2000. Retrieved April 22, 2002, from www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius_00/hate00.pdf
26.
Fradella, H. F.
(2002). Legal, moral, and social reasons for decriminalizing sodomy. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 18(3), 279-301.
27.
Franklin, K. (1996). Hate crime or rite of passage? Assailant motivations in antigay violence. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, California School of Professional Psychology at Almeda.
28.
Franklin, K.
(2000). Antigay behaviors among young adults: Prevalence, patterns, and motivators in a noncriminal population. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 15, 339-362.
29.
Herek, G. M.
(1991). Myths about sexual orientation: A lawyer's guide to social science research. Law & Sexuality, 1, 133-172.
30.
Herek, G. M.
(2000). The psychology of sexual prejudice. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 9, 19-22.
31.
Herek, G. M.
, & Capitanio, J. P. (1996). “Some of my best friends”: Intergroup contact, concealable stigma, and heterosexuals' attitudes toward gay men and lesbians. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 22, 412-424.
32.
Herek, G. M.
, & Glunt, E. K. (1993). Interpersonal contact and heterosexuals' attitudes toward gay men: Results from a national survey. Journal of Sex Research, 30, 239-244.
33.
Hiatt, D.
, & Hargrave, G. E. (1994). Psychological assessment of gay and lesbian law enforcement applicants. Journal of Personality Assessment, 63, 80-80.
34.
Jenness, V.
, & Grattet, R. (1996). The criminalization of hate: A comparison of structural and polity influences on the passage of “bias-crime” legislation in the United States. Sociological Perspectives, 39, 129-154.
35.
Jordan, K. C. (1997). The effect of disclosure on the professional life of lesbian police officers. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, City University of New York.
36.
Kanter, R. M.
(1977). Men and women of the corporation. New York: Basic Books.
37.
Katzenstein, M. F.
(1998). Faithful and fearless: Moving feminist protest inside the church and military. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
38.
Kauth, M. R.
, & Landis, D. (1996). Applying lessons learned from minority integration in the military. In G. M. Herek, J. B. Jobe, & R. M. Carney (Eds.), Out in force: Sexual orientation and the military (pp. 86-105). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
39.
Kite, M. E.
, & Whitley, B. E., Jr. (1998). Do heterosexual women and men differ in their attitudes toward homosexuality? A conceptual and methodological analysis. In G. M. Herek (Ed.), Stigma and sexual orientation (pp. 39-61). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
40.
Koegel, P.
(1996). Lessons learned from the experience of domestic police and fire departments. In G. M. Herek, J. B. Jobe, & R. M. Carney (Eds.), Out in force: Sexual orientation and the military (pp. 131-153). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
41.
Kraska, P. B.
, & Kappeler, V. E. (1995). To serve and pursue: Exploring police sexual violence against women. Justice Quarterly, 12, 85-112.
42.
Kraska, P. B.
, & Kappeler, V. E. (1997). Militarizing American police: The rise and normalization of paramilitary units. Social Problems, 44, 1-8.
43.
Leinen, S.
(1993). Gay cops. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
44.
Levine, M. P.
, & Leonard, R. (1984). Discrimination against lesbians in the workforce. Signs, 9, 700-710.
45.
Logan, C. R.
(1996). Homophobia? No, homoprejudice. Journal of Homosexuality, 31, 31-53.
46.
Manning, P. K.
(1995). Book review: Forces of deviance. Justice Quarterly, 12, 605-610.
47.
Marotta, T.
(1981). The politics of homosexuality. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
48.
Martin, S. E.
(1994). “Outsider Within” the station house: The impact of race and gender on black women police. Social Problems, 41, 383-400.
49.
Messerschmidt, J.
(1993). Masculinities and crime: Critique and reconceptualization of theory. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
50.
Miller, S. L.
, Forest, K. B., & Jurik, N. C. (in press). Lesbians in policing: Perceptions and work experiences within the “macho” cop culture. In N. Sokoloff & B. Price (Eds.), Women and criminal justice (3rd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
51.
Miller, S. L.
, Forest, K. B., & Jurik, N. C. (n.d.). Diversity in blue: Lesbian and gay police officers in a masculine occupation. Unpublished manuscript.
52.
Model Penal Code and Commentaries
. (1980). Section 213.2 “Deviate Sexual Intercourse by Force or Imposition,” Comment (pp. 357-376). Philadelphia: American Law Institute.
53.
National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs
. (2000). Anti-lesbian, gay, transgender, and bisexual violence in 1999. Retrieved September 29, 2001, from www.lambda.org
54.
Omi, M.
, & Winant, H. (1994). Racial formation in the United States (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge.
55.
Peel, E.
(1999). Violence against lesbians and gay men: Decision-making in reporting and not reporting crime. Feminism & Psychology, 9, 161-167.
56.
Polimeni, A.
, Hardie, E., & Buzwell, S. (2000). Homophobia among Australian heterosexuals: The role of sex, gender role ideology, and gender role traits. Current Research in Social Psychology, 5, 47-62.
57.
Raja, S.
, & Stokes, J. P. (1998). Assessing attitudes toward lesbians and gay men: The modern homophobia scale. Journal of Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Identity, 3, 113-134.
58.
Roderick, T.
, McCammon, S. L., Long, T. E., & Allred, L. J. (1998). Behavioral aspects of homonegativity. Journal of Homosexuality, 36, 79-89.
59.
Schellenberg, E. G.
, Hirt, J., & Sears, A. (1999). Attitudes toward homosexuals among students at a Canadian university. Sex Roles, 40, 139-152.
60.
Schneider, B. E.
(1986). Coming out at work: Bridging the private/public gap. Work and Occupations, 13, 463-487.
61.
Seidman, S.
(1997). Difference troubles: Queering social theory and sexual politics. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
62.
Westley, W. A.
(1956). Secrecy and the police. Social Forces, 34, 254-257.
63.
Wolfson, E.
, & Mower, R. S. (1994). When the police are in our bedrooms, shouldn't the courts go in after them? An update on the fight against “sodomy” laws. Fordham Urban Law Journal, 21, 997-1055.
