Chapter 12 - Beauty and the Beast: Gender Integration and the Police in Post-Conflict Bosnia and Herzegovina

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Societies in general often consider policing to be a male profession. The end result is that most police forces are comprised primarily of men. This is the case in Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereby simply referred to as Bosnia) where, historically, few women have participated in law enforcement and where police culture has been heavily steeped in traditions of patriarchy and sexism (which were exacerbated by the 1992–1995 war). Gender integration, however, has become a focal point of the police reformation process in post-conflict Bosnia. Gender integration activities have largely targeted the recruitment, hiring, and advancement of female officers throughout Bosnia. As a result, women now currently constitute 6.3% of the Bosnian police force. Despite the push to integrate females into the police force, little is known empirically about these women. Who are they? What are their experiences? What are their attitudes? What attracted them to policing? Are they ‘different’ than their male colleagues? And if so, how?

This essay will explore women's participation and role as agents of change in the police reformation process in post-conflict Bosnia. Specific attention will be devoted to the characteristics, rankings, and attitudes of female officers serving in post-conflict Bosnia, with comparisons made with their male counterparts. Results from a survey of 10 female Bosnian police officers, as well as policy implications and suggestions for future research will be presented.

POLICE REFORMATION IN BOSNIA

The 1992–1995 war left Bosnia with three separate police forces; one for each ethnicity (Bosniak, Croat, and Serb). Subsequently, each police force had its own separate jurisdiction. While the Bosnian and Croatian police forces (aka Bosniak-Croat Federation) have since merged (at least by name), the Republika Srpska police force has flatly refused any and all efforts to integrate with the federation. In addition to the law enforcement agencies operating at the state level (Bosniak-Croat Federation, Republika Srpska, Brčko District, Border Police, and SIPA), each canton has a separate law enforcement agency (10 total cantons). The overall size of the Bosnian local police force in the post-war years was also problematic. It was estimated that in 1996 there were about 40,000 police officers operating in Bosnia, three times peacetime strength. Furthermore, there were very few ethnic minority and female police officers.