May 14, 2018: A barbed comment by a soon-to-retire Illinois State Police lieutenant gave Cara Rabe-Hemp both the title and the theme of her new book.

Observing that the lieutenant, who had joined the force in the 1980s, was just completing a 25-year career in the policing, Rabe-Hemp asked her, “Do you think anything has slowed you down?”

“Policing is a boys’ club,” came the quick reply, “And if you haven’t noticed, I’m not a boy.”

Rabe-Hemp, a professor in the Department of Criminal Justice Sciences at Illinois State University, set about exploring the complex and frustrating reality behind those words in her book, “Thriving in an All-Boys Club: Female Police and Their Fight for Equality.

In a conversation with Megan Hadley, Rabe-Hemp describes how U.S. law enforcement agencies in the 1990s and 2000s began to open their doors to greater numbers of women, how in the process female officers have changed the practice of law enforcement across the U.S., and why—despite the changed climate─recruitment of women appears to be declining.

Read the article: Female Cops:  Fighting for Respect in a ‘Boys Club’ Culture (thecrimereport.org)