TRAFFIC CITATIONS IN RELATION TO GENDER

The present study was designed to examine the possibility that traffic officers are more lenient in issuing citations to other gender driver s. Statistics on the traffic citations issued for a year were obtained from the highway patrols of two states. The information was classifie d by violation, officers' gender, and drivers' gender. For most catego ries of violation, men issued a greater percent of their citations to male drivers than women did and women issued a greater percent of thei r citations to female drivers than men did. The differences could have been due to leniency on the part of one gender or both genders of off icers. Leniency on the part of both genders is more consistent with th e literature on helping in situations with low cost and low threat to the helper. A possible interpretation is that gender identity includes norms for positive treatment of other gender persons.