Policing between minorities : 'Asian-Australian' police recruits and policing of the LGBT community

Using Social Identity Theory (SIT), an online survey was used to capture Asian-Australian police recruit’s perceptions of policing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. This research determines that the intersectionality of identity Asian-Australian police recruits (as police officers, as Asian-Australians, and, for a small number of recruits as LGB people) are correlated in relation to perceptions of policing of LGBT people. The results suggest that whilst police training is affective in instilling operational practices and guidelines regarding the policing of minority groups, the overall perceptions of Asian-Australian recruits towards LGBT people are negative. This research supports the idea of increased recruitment of diverse people into police organizations, but it argues that the background characteristics diverse recruits bring into policing (such as cultural influences and levels of bias) can have (like non-diverse recruits) a detrimental effect on perceptions of policing of minority group members.