Expert: Jack Toomey - 9/24/2009

Question
QUESTION: What are some difficulties that women go through when entering into the Criminal Justice field as an investigator compared to entering in as a police officer?

ANSWER: What kind of investigator in the criminal justice field are you talking about?

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QUESTION: Sorry about that, a Homicide Investigator.

ANSWER: Well it is really a moot point because no one, including women, would ever enter the Criminal Justice field as a homicide investigator.  Actually this is a point that the public, especially young people, do not understand.  No one would ever be allowed to work homicide without years and years of experience on the police department and that means years in uniform as a patrol officer and then at least a few years as a precinct detective.  There is so much to learn about police work and the only place to learn it is on the street.  I could give you ten examples of things that a uniformed officer learns in the first few years but I hope you get the idea.

I blame television for most of this.

What you are proposing is similar to a woman graduating from medical school and the next day performing surgery.  It just doesn't happen.

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QUESTION: Mr. Toomey

I think I may not be explaining myself better because it sort of seems like we have a communication barrier somewhere. It is my fault I should explain myself better and I apologize for that. I am a criminal justice student on my last year of college. So I am well aware of the process to become a homicide detective and how it takes at least 5 years between being on the streets as an officer and in the precinct as a detective and that they can also be gruesome. This term of school I have Women in Criminal Justice and I wanted to hear your perspective on the difficulties that women face when entering into the criminal justice field. I have chosen three different careers (SWAT, police officer and homicide investigator). To sort of explain my question better if a woman were to apply for the position of a police officer; what difficulties would she have because she is a woman? After she did her time with the police department; what difficulties would she have, because of her gender, if she were to become a homicide detective?

I just wanted to get the perspective of someone who has been in the criminal justice field.

Answer
Ok I understand now but your original question clearly said "entering" the criminal justice field.


If you were talking about thirty years ago I would have told you that the biggest hurdle is that the public did not accept the fact that a woman had the same police powers as a man.  But times have changed and no one looks twice when they see a female police officer where in the past it might be the topic of conversation for days.

The only thing that I can think of is that women tend to become mothers.  With motherhood comes children and trying to balance raising children and working the various shifts that come with police work.  Some departments still have revolving shifts so the mother is gone from the house after school and at night.  If a woman goes into the detective section there are always call outs where the phone will ring on her day off or in the middle of the night and using the excuse that "the baby is sick" does not work.