I recognised in seven interviews a prejudicial view of a group or a stereotype based on identity. I found evidence of assumptions being made based on someone’s ethnicity or cultural background, such as:
When I was very young in service there was a woman who was being raped on the … ring road literally it was a dual carriageway road there’s a footbridge that goes over it. We could see her being raped, she was a foreign national, he was from Somalia and in full view of everyone she was being pinned down screaming for her life, full view of the road. We had three or four calls when the first cops got there we had to pull him off her… we did see a lot of Somali population perpetrating that sort of crime… If I’m honest, I think Somalia itself is a completely fucked up country where the normal rules of normal society don’t apply (Male officer 12, inspector, STO, Police Force 2).
The above quote could imply that there is an assumption that Black men are more likely to perpetrate rape and perhaps more likely to evade being prosecuted for it. I witnessed a different type of prejudice also:
We very rarely get a report of rape from an Asian female, it’s a matter of honour. If she alleges to have been raped, then she’s been dishonest. If the family have enough money she will be shipped back home, if they have plenty of money she will be killed, if not thrown into a brothel, you won’t find that in the papers. Similarly, for children, if it’s the wrong sex of baby they will ship them home or if the baby is retarded they will kill them. If your husband died his brothers would look after you and you would have to have sex with them, that’s rape by another name, that never gets reported (Male officer 20, detective sergeant, SOIT, Police Force 1).
Both participants here were White British and made prejudiced comments about individuals and cultures that differ from their own heritage. Additionally, I found evidence of class based prejudice as follows:
The more working class you get, the more people you are likely to get that would have an affinity towards the guy in this type of case where it’s a consensual thing when two people are drunk and went back together (vignette two) … we think of normal people, most of your complaints come from the vulnerable side of society, you know the lower end of society, the sex workers, the people who are educationally subnormal, it makes it even harder (Male officer 8, detective inspector, Police Force 1).
Male officer eight then went on to assert:
Girls in council estates regularly get raped and have sex without consent, but they accept it, they would never dream of leaving their husband and kids. We look at it from a higher moral level.
The above statement implies that middle class individuals operate according to a different value system than those from lower socio-economic backgrounds. It could be the case that women from working class backgrounds accept that they will not be believed by the police or taken seriously if they report the rape. I believe I was perceived to be middle class and well educated by my participants, and my ethnicity is White British. This could be why some participants felt able to be make such statements to me. The views expressed above are not considered socially acceptable or politically correct. It could be that other participants had similar views, but did not want to appear to have undesirable opinions. On the other hand, this could be evidence that during the interviews my participants did feel able to disclose their honest opinions. Prejudicial views appeared to be a minority of opinions (seven participants). A crucial way that opinions expressed above can contribute to shaping police decision making is because of the fact that some police officers are guided by a ‘gut feeling’ to assist when deliberating over a case. Five participants expressed they felt gut feelings that enlightened them as to forming opinions. Such gut feelings leave open the possibility of personal views and prejudices guiding thoughts without the police officer fully acknowledging where such thoughts may be rooted or whether they comply with policy and the law. This further sports the concept of a covert systemic prejudice. This feeling can lead
to value judgments on how truthful someone is, and their moral value and their motives. For example:
I would want to see the victim and suspect and talk to them and make an assessment, often it’s just a gut feeling. You spend your whole life being lied to by different people, you can get a sense of when people are telling lies and when they are telling the truth (Male officer 6, detective inspector, Police Force 2).
There are times where we have a gut feeling most people they do on a case and might not feel right about something or someone (Female officer 17, Detective Constable, Police Force 2).
The gut feeling or instinct stems from the belief that because of the experiences of working in the police, officers develop knowledge and insight into the criminal behaviour of others. Throughout my interviews, participants portrayed their role in rape investigations as objective observers of the evidence in front of them. However, the fact that some participants admit to being led by instincts based on their opinion suggests they do draw from their own subjective viewpoints. The gut feeling could be particularly significant in cases that lack independent evidence to evaluate, as police officers may resort to their instincts to determine the truth of the case. Police officers attesting to experiencing gut feelings or instincts are well documented throughout the literature on policing cultures (Van Maanen, 2005). Such instincts have been linked to officers’ ability to ‘know’ if someone is telling the truth or not (Crank, 1998). Furthermore, the detective culture most associated with relying on gut feelings is that classified as an art or craft (see section 2.9 on Police Cultures). This is relevant to rape investigations where judgments over the victim’s account are made. For example, the following comment is Male officer 6 explaining how he can tell when someone is making a false allegation of rape:
A lot of it is gut reaction and gut feeling. It depends on the woman, if you’re dealing with a more mature women that looks like she has been round the block a few times, all of those influences play on you, don’t they? Has she made any previous allegations? You often found they have. It’s a question of assessing the victim and a lot of it can be gut feeling (Detective inspector, Police Force 2).
A reliance on stereotypes and over generalisations is justified and legitimised by the label of gut feelings, this gives the impression that assumptions not
based on fact are legitimate to believe as police officers are privy to instincts that members of the public cannot understand.