You are interested in conducting research concerning police officers and their jobs. The information you want to gather, including job satisfaction or job hazards, is up to you as long as you clearly state ...…
Similar to military service, individuals are attracted to a law enforcement profession for various reasons. Some are interested in the authoritative position while others are attracted by the ability to uphold high standards of law enforcement. Whatever the reason for pursuing this line of profession, one thing remains constant for each law enforcement professional is the stress, and how the stress has a limited or lasting effect. The focus of this paper is on the effects of stress to law enforcement professionals and may be generic in some aspects in order to generalize effects as each individual’s reaction to a situation may be significantly different depending on many factors. Much research has been…
Stress has many effects on the policing community as a whole. Officers may lose sleep over the stress and become fatigued which in turn causes them to lack on their duties, or delay their reaction time. Officers may also get so stressed that they go through a post traumatic disorder. Post traumatic disorder can cause officers nightmares, or worse they can wind up committing suicide.…
One challenge that police officers face daily is the stress that accompanies the job. Many officers face very stressful and intense situations that need to be handled carefully. A police officer may face a crowd that is rioting and looting and is greatly outnumbered. He or she faces the risk of being overrun and this can be detrimental to their emotions. They may be in fear of their life because crowds feed off of each other and can become very aggressive and violent. In some instances the officer will face gunfire and this puts the officer in a life or death situation. If the officer has to kill the subject then the officer may face Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and this can affect their performance of their daily duties and their personal lives. According to (Gersons, 1989) shooting incidents are a rare phenomenon in low violence police work; however, when a shooting incident occurs, the psychological impact for the officers involved may take the form of severe PTSD (Stewart,2011). There are programs that help individuals to cope with PTSD and can get help from The National Institute for Mental Health.…
Emotional Survival for Law Enforcement A Synopsis of Dr. Kevin M. Gilmartin “A Guide for Officers and Their Families” Journey Through Law Enforcement Idealistic recruits can become cynical veterans.…
In addition to the physical dangers, being ready for the unknown is what officers must deal with, and this can place a significant amount of physical and mental stress on the officer.…
There is significant stress associated with the use of deadly force - having to kill another human being (Volpe & Anderson, 1998). No officer is ever emotionally ready to kill another human being. Many officers say that the first thing that came to mind after they fired the fatal bullet was "Thou shall not kill." All of these stressors make police work different from other professions. Of course, the on-going, day-to-day exposure to murders, assaults, rapes, child abuse, domestic violence and "man's inhumanity to man" intensifies this stress-related burden. Vicarious Trauma is a diagnostic term used to depict the cluster of symptoms many police officers suffer as a direct result of the job of policing. In diagnosing trauma-related disorders…
There are many dangers concerning the work of a police officer. Officers face various types of dangers and risk. When a person signs up to become an officer of the law, they already know the nature of the job means that they will be putting themselves at risk of different dangers. Possessing the job of protecting others and keeping peace within the community is a risk in itself. Some of these dangers that officers face every day of their lives are health problems like getting the following high blood pressure, insomnia, increased levels of destructive hormones, heart problems, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and a big one is suicide and this is from the stress of the job (Zink, 2012). It does not only affect an officer’s physical health but also their mental health and with that is where suicide can come into the picture. Driving is also another danger that an officer faces because they can crash or get hit while on a traffic stop due to other drivers either not paying attention to what they are doing, not knowing how to drive, or they are under the influence of something; not the officer but the other driver. A big danger is getting hurt on the job in some way or another and even death. Officers face different people every day that can be in bad situations like fighting, on some type of drug, or just plain hate life and the…
Josh Stone wrote an essay on the life of police officers that can be found on the street directory website. He states that due to the unknown factors and unpredictability of daily situations, police have a very dangerous profession. Daily risks of police officers…
"Policing is a psychologically stressful work environment filled with danger, high demands, ambiguity in work encounters, human misery and exposure to death" ("Science Daily", 2008). With that being said, there are numerous issues facing law enforcement today. A career in law enforcement is not only physical but also a demanding psychological job. Officers are faced with terrorist threats, danger on the job and the decision on what type of force to use dependent on the situation they are faced with. They are often blamed for racial profiling and experience law suits. Officers face death every time they report for duty, they are giving their life. Law enforcement for years has been faced with corruption in the departments. The stress and late night hours of the job becomes an issue on a daily basis, affecting family life and at times mentally ruining the officer. Safety is always an issue along with the multicultural world we live in. Different cultural backgrounds and language barriers they deal with along with budget cuts, also makes their job extremely challenging.…
Police history can be traced back to the 18th century. When looking at the subject of police work there is significant culture and history that follows along with it. There are many topics that can be analyzed when identifying and describing the elements and the significances that are associated with policing. An element that plays a significant factor to police work, and that attributes to the policing culture is the amount of stress that an officer will face while performing his or her duties. Another factor that plays a role in police culture can be found when one examines how women and ethnic minorities have achieved equality in law enforcement.…
First, I would like to say that working as a corrections officers or anyone who works in that type of environment will say that it is the most stressful job in law enforcement. (Carlson & Garrett, 2008) It is near impossible to work in a stressful environment such as a prison without suffering some form of ill effects. (Carlson & Garrett, 2008) Correctional officers oversee inmate of Federal, State, and local prisons or jail systems.…
Many officers find the field to be stressful because it holds the highest risk of injury and illness, often resulting from confrontations with inmates. Jail and prison security must be provided 24 hours a day, officers work all hours of the day and night, weekends, and holidays these factors affect their daily lives very heavily but they do it in the name of justice. The daily interactions with inmates are a big responsibility which I do not take lightly. Although an officer is an authority figure they are civil servants and are required to respect the inmates rights and treat them with respect.…
“Researchers have noted that the law enforcement officers view their work as being stressful and…
Police work can be dangerous and stressful. Officers often deal with violent criminals and may be injured or killed. They must make quick decisions while on duty, yet be tactful and patient with people who are in trouble or have been…