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High level of stress in police officers
High level of stress in police officers
High level of stress in police officers
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Policing can be a highly stressful profession due to the implications that are inherent to the emergency service profession. The unpredictability of police work can have a significant impact on the stress level of police over time (Hickman, Fricas, Strom, Pope 2011), which has been shown to foster the ability to reduce one’s psychological well-being for a given period of time (Johnson, Todd and Subramanian 2005). It is often suggested that policing is a stressful profession in itself as police are often exposed to disturbing events through the very nature of their job. Violanti and Aron studied organizational and inherent stressors among police stressors officers. Organizational stressors where those related to the structure of the police
Firstly, the job role I will be exploring is a police officer which falls into the sector of justice.
Gilmartin, K. M. Emotional survival for law enforcement, a guide for officers and their families. 1st ed. Arizona: E-S Press, 2002.
Public Safety (2007) has stated that throughout history almost everyone have wanted a form of protection so they did not have to live in fear every time they left their house. People generally want to live their lives knowing that they are safe. It is not known for sure where the origins of police work have actually begun. During the medieval times, fudal lords would hire strong men who would ensure that everyone paid their taxes. These hired brutes attempted to maintain some sort of order throughout the kingdom among the people. Unfortunately, in most cases, these men only followed their employer’s wishes and did not handle situations in honest or civilized ways (p.142).
Some of the world’s most-loved and well-known superheroes include Superman, Batman, and Spiderman. However great these superheroes may appear, their fictional stories also include stressors that they face everyday, such as the villains that they encounter and the pressure of being a hero and an everyday citizen. In this way, stress often negatively impacts the lives of the ones who watch over every neighborhood, every street, and every house. Such is the job of a police officer. Because stress has become an important topic in the community of law enforcement, things that are commonly discussed are the causes of stress, the effects of stress, and the handling of stress in the lives of police officers.
Most people, if asked would surely agree that being a police officer is not easy, but most probably do not realize that becoming one is just as difficult. During our field trip to the Warren County Police Department Major Bowles and officer Fields talked a little about the extensive process, similar to the process our textbook, Forensic Psychology describes, of being hired into the police department. After putting in their application and being selected to move forward in the program a future police officer must have a background check, complete a psychological screening, a polygraph test, several interviews, and a physical test. If they pass each of those they continue on to the police academy. In whole, the process takes over a year before
The on-the-job stress that law enforcement officers take on is like that of none other. The stress that the officers face during their work shifts, which could vary from many hours a day or even a week, or even being a part of a Special Weapons and Tactical team (SWAT), taking part in a hostage negotiations, additional court dates, or even being on an undercover assignment, could put a great deal of stress and thoughts in their minds. The officers could be thinking of anything, for example, I am not spending enough time with my wife, my children, or even that they cannot handle their job any longer; the thought of suicide could and ...
The understanding of police work is somewhat similar to the same way officers analyze and deal assholes. As we know understanding of police work deals with maintaining order, but at the same time they might come to counter certain individuals who will question the authority of the police. That’s called moral mandate. The officer has to decide in what way he is going to proceed the encounter with. The officer can get physical with the individual, he can just pretend he never heard anything and let it go, or he could find the simplest probable cause to make an arrest. It is similar to when police officers are dealing with assholes. They need to figure out if the individual is going to cooperate, question, or go against police authority. Territoriality is also an important key to understanding police work. It is an advantage if the officer knows his surroundings because then the officer will know when something is going on. Now when it comes to dealing with an asshole, the officer is familiar with the characteristics of someone that is going to be trouble. Once they approach the individual they can if they are dealing with an asshole. If it is an asshole they are dealing with they need to follow three stages to make sure what the circumstances are and how to deal with the individual. Those three stages are Affront, Clarification, and Remedy.
Stress is not a permanent or incurable disease. It is one that can be reduced and managed in several different ways, both personally and within the workplace. With any problem, the first step to reaching a solution is identifying key signs or symptoms associated with the issue. Police officers tend to display an array of physical or behavioral changes when they are feeling conflicted or stressed out. A main part of being a good supervisor is noticing even the smallest changes in the actions and behaviors of those that work under their command.
My interest in law enforcement grew in me at a young age probably around the age of 8. I would always watch the show Cops and that got me really interested. It was not until the age of 10 that I said to myself that I wanted to be a police officer or something in that field. During my years in junior high one of the officers who worked there told me about a program called police explorers, once he explained the program to me I knew that that was what I wanted to do: police work. A week after I turned fourteen I decided to join the Costa Mesa Police explorer program, in order to get I accepted to the program I had to attend four consecutive meetings and on my fourth meeting I was given an application the following week I was interviewed by four police officer; it was scary. This program has taught me many lessons such as responsibility, respect, integrity and many other qualities that one must have to be considered eligible for police work.
Young people and the police have, for many years, experienced a tense and confrontational relationship (Borgquist & Johnson et al., 1995). This has led to a great wealth of literature based upon the notion of police-youth interaction. Much of this literature has tended to focus upon juvenile criminality and the reasons why young people commit such seemingly high levels of crime. Whilst the relationship between young people and the police force has been widely theorised and explained, there is very little literature on juvenile attiudes towards the police. Research that concerns societies attitudes towards the police force tends to focus upon the views and opinions of adults (Hurst and Frank, 2000). In this first section of my literature review I am going to focus upon work that allows us to gain a deeper understanding of why young people are so important when looking at crime. This section will allow us to comprehend the ways in which, literature suggests, young people view the police. This knowledge will provide a basis for my research in which I look more specifically at youth attitudes towards PCSO’s.
In my opinion, the many different views of police culture can vary in many different situations. I say this because of the many different views this can be misleading at times. I think what's needed is reform of a police culture that has often infected relations between police and blacks, destabilized respect for cops and the law, and set the basis for the many deaths. The overall image of the police offers is an overview of the public’s perception of the police in reality. Without the public’s view of this police culture wouldn’t have the look it has now. Specific characteristics of the publics, association, or foundation remain interchangeable. Actions of the overall image are valuable because they
In life there are a lot of issues that involve social psychology. Being a police officer is a profession that encounters a lot of social psychology issues. One issue that all police officers have to encounter is prejudice. Police officers have to not be prejudiced against the citizens that they are trying to protect and serve the criminals that they must apprehend and also against each other. Two case studies that will be discussed are prejudice against female police officers by their male counterparts and racial prejudice against potential criminals.
Police officers have one of the highest suicide rates in the country. The daily stress that police officers face both on and off the job is a major contributing factor to that sobering statement. Police culture in the past failed to recognize stress as a problem affecting their officers. While being a police officer, officers have to learn to separate work from home life, however it is sometimes hard for the officers to leave their work at work and their home life at home. Sometimes, when these two worlds collide it creates a great deal of stress. As a result, officers have the second highest divorce rate in the country and often turn into problem drinkers to cope with the issues that they face (Constant, T). Also, the unmanaged stress of
This course has helped me in many ways, especially time management, health, and money. Instead of having a very relaxing week and then panicking at the end of the week when everything is due, this course has helped me to plan out my studies. Planning them out helps me produce higher quality work and assists me with my stress problem. One thing that has helped a lot is getting short easy assignments or parts of assignments done in short periods of extra time I have. For example, instead of turning on that TV, wait ten minutes and knock out an assignment. Another asset for myself has been setting dates to have assignments done. Although these assignments may not be due on that day, getting them done and out of the way, makes more time for other
I have the qualification and the experience to serve in the Los Santos Police Department. I am very sociable who gets along with everyone, I know the rules and abide by them correctly, I am a law-abiding and loving our country enough to committed to the Los Santos Police Department and protect and serve. I was a police officer in the military and that's where I gained the experience and the qualification. I'm an honorable person who respects others and I think I should be picked to join the force, because I am the kind of person who will fight to death just to protect the citizens, because they deserve to live in peace, and I am willing to take a bullet for every citizen in our country, because that's who I am.