A Comparison of Women’s Motivations to Enter the Police Profession in the Caribbean

Abstract

Absent from the criminological literature on policing in the Caribbean are studies on female’s motivations to become police officers, studies using female police recruits and studies using a comparative approach. As a result of this gap, data were gathered from female police recruits in Jamaica (N = 37) and Trinidad and Tobago (N = 60) in July 2017 via a standardised, self-administered questionnaire in order to determine their motivations for entry into policing. The main motivation for female’s entry into policing in both jurisdictions was job security. Revenge and the desire for power and authority were the least cited motivations for entry into the police profession in both jurisdictions. The importance of females as police officers, study limitations and directions for future research are also discussed.