"When They Hand You Your Uniform, They Forget to Say, 'Hand Me Your Soul'": Incidents and Impacts of Institutional Betrayal in Canadian Police Services.

This study examines how Canadian policing functions as a total institution, applying Erving Goffman's theory of total institutions and the psychological concept of institutional betrayal to analyze the maintenance of gendered and racialized power structures. Based on 116 in-depth interviews with officers from 31 police services and a national survey of 727 participants, the research reveals strong pressures for assimilation and conformity that silence and discredit reports of sexual, gender, and race-based workplace abuse. Institutional betrayal manifests through denial, minimization, retaliation, and structural barriers, disproportionately harming racialized women, men, and white women by negatively affecting their mental health, retention, and willingness to report abuse. The findings highlight systemic racism and sexism within Canadian police services, institutional awareness of these issues, coordinated efforts to suppress complaints, and resistance to meaningful reform despite decades of documented harm.