Policewomen: 2000 A.D.
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X7905200403 |
| Published date | 01 October 1979 |
| Author | Peter Horne |
| Date | 01 October 1979 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
PETER HORNE
Assistant Professor
St. Louis
Community
College at Meramec
POLICEWOMEN:
2000
A.D.
I. INTRODUCTION
Some
people may question the futuristic emphasis of this
paper
and
wonder
of
what
value it is to
study
the future of policewomen in
the year 2000 when the present still has so
many
unresolved issues
and
problems
to deal with. While I do feel it is
important
and
necessary to
deal
with
immediate
problems
of the policewoman, I
feel it is equally as
important
to step back
and
look
at the
short
and
long
term
sociocultural
trends
which will affect policing
and
policewomen in the future.
This
term,
"sociocultural",
by the way,
will be used to refer to all types of social
and
cultural
phenomena
which, of course,
are
influenced by the various economic, political
and
demographic
realities of
our
world. By
examining
these trends
carefully
one
is able to forcast some future event,
condition
or
process with a high probability of success. Forecasts
are
not
just
mere
predictions based on intuition or
"gut"
reactions either,
but
are
evaluated
judgments
employing trend
data
and
other
currently
acceptable
methods
used by futurists.'
But still. of course, even the best
offorecasters
will be
wrong
about
aforecast sometime; there
are
any
number
of
constraints
and
limitations to forecasts.?
For
instance, is
something
in society a
short
or long
term
trend?
Another
thing
to be
aware
of is
that
any
trend
causes
some
kind
of
reaction
and,
quite often,
that
reaction is
negative,
and
countertrends
develop which, in
some
cases, supersede
the trend.
To
return
to the basic
question
on
some
minds, why discuss
policewomen 21 years
from
now in 2000 A. D.?
The
answer is
that
the
police
and
the entire criminal justice system have to get
away
from
their
current
position
of reacting to
change
to one
of
recognising
change
and
trends
and
proactively
preparing
for them.'
If
we in
policing have knowledge
about
the
probable
future
of
policewomen
then
we
can
work
to
achieve the
anticipated
future
or
"attempt
to
prevent
or
change
it if it is regarded as undesireable".«This,
then,
is
the
important
point
of
studying the
future
policewoman so
that
we
can
all
examine
her future role
and
consider its implications on
our
own
lives
and
actions.
344 October 1979
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