LAW ENFORCEMENT INDEX

When prejudiced thinking infects society at large, it has an especially serious influence on the actions of police and prosecutors. Given their great power to use force against individuals, our society has wisely placed structural checks and controls upon the police; but even these may not be adequate to prevent abuse when other societal institutions see protection of rights for certain categories of person as less important. In this section we present evidences of the serious consequences of anti-male bias in the enforcement of civil and criminal laws. The general discussions (labels beginning with A) and individual case studies (labels beginning with B) below are meant to reveal problems of gender bias in this arena, in hopes of spurring needed reforms.