MALE POLICE OFFICERS’ DOMINANCE AND REPORTING OF CRIMES AGAINST WOMEN IN MURANG’A COUNTY, KENYA

Abstract

The main objective of this study was to analyze the male police officers’ dominance and reporting of crimes against women in Murang’a County, Kenya. There has been a growing research interest in examining police officers’ response to victims of crime, but very few studies empirically assessed challenges that women survivors of crime face while reporting to the police. The survey utilized Ex-Post Facto design in the study; whereas the target population was a total of 45 respondents with a sample size of 41. The sampling projection was 20 civilian women, 5 civilian men, 5 Police constables, 2 Corporals, 2 Sergeants, 2 Inspectors, 2 Chief Inspectors, 2 Senior Superintendents and 1 Commissioner. The data was collected through both closed-ended and open-ended questionnaires, focus group discussions, interviews, observation and perusal of secondary sources. The study collected two types of data: quantitative and qualitative. Descriptive statistics was employed in analyzing the quantitative data. The descriptive statistics included measures of both central tendency and variability. The measures were mean, median, mode, range and standard deviation. They were presented visually by tables and graphs. Qualitative data was analyzed by focusing on the identification and reporting of themes within the collected data. Findings from the qualitative data were presented in verbatim quotes and narrative form. It was found women expressed their dissatisfaction with being attended to by male police officers. The study concluded that the NPS gender-imbalance is the contributor to over-representation of male police officers in all areas of police deployments, resulting into rare occurrences of interactions between members of the public and female police officers. The study makes recommendations for the NPSC to ensure there is full implementation of the existing laws and formulate policies regarding recruitment of police officers, and specialized training of police officers on recording and investigating crimes committed against women.

Key Words: Police Service, Service Dissatisfaction, Male Dominance, Case Reporting, Gender-Imbalance

CITATION: Barasa, S. J., & Masiga, C. (2022). Male police officers’ dominance and reporting of crimes against women in Murang’a County, Kenya. The Strategic Journal of Business & Change Management, 9 (4), 1439 – 1446.