Gender, masculinity and policing : An analysis of the implications of police masculinised culture on policing domestic violence in southern Ghana and Lagos, Nigeria

Abstract

This study explores and compares how the masculinised policing culture of the Ghana and Nigeria Police influences their interventions in domestic violence (DV). The police, as a public and security institution, play a very critical and pivotal role in the fight against domestic violence. The domestic violence laws of Ghana and Nigeria made the police the central agency for responding to domestic violence by providing support services for victims, protecting and empowering victims to prevent the reoccurrence of the abuse. This paper argues that the masculinised occupational culture of the police is replicated in their work on domestic violence, thus affecting the intervention process and outcome. Several studies have examined police interventions in domestic violence, but the problem of police masculinised culture and how this culture is implicated in domestic violence interventions has largely been unexplored. Using a qualitative research methodology, this study explores the manifestations of police masculinity and its impact on policing domestic violence. Specifically, interviews were conducted with 100 female victims of DV who had sought police assistance, 30 police officers who handle DV and four social workers while participant observations were undertaken in six police domestic violence units in Southern Ghana and Lagos, Nigeria. The results of the study reveal that masculinised police occupational culture manifests in the personal, structural, and operational aspects of police intervention in DV cases, impeding the success of these interventions. The Ghana and Nigeria police should restructure police training and curriculum to include gender sensitivity.