Police Officer Stress Research Paper

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Police Officer Stress

One of the toughest jobs is working in law enforcement. Part of the reason for this is because police officers are expected to go between two different extremes. As, their jobs can be very boring and tedious due to the routine patrols along with paperwork that they have to submit to their supervisors on a regular basis. Then, there are those times when they will be called to deal with intense situations that cause their levels of adrenaline to increase exponentially. As they must become involved in activities that are considered to be dangerous, to the general public based upon the action that criminals are engaging in (i.e. armed robbery, shootouts and car chases). These two different extremes can cause many officers to go through tremendous ups and downs as part of the job. Over the course of time, this can have an impact on their mental and physical health. Evidence of this can be seen by looking at comments from John M. Violanti (a 23-year veteran of the New York State Police) who said, "Policing is a psychologically stressful work environment filled with danger, high demands, ambiguity in work encounters, human misery and exposure to death." ("Impact of Stress on Police Officers," 2008) This is significant, because it is showing how police officers must go through different extremes during the process of conducting their jobs on a regular basis. To fully understand how this can have an impact on the well-being of an individual requires examining the way bad stress can have an impact on police officers, how this can influence suicide rates and what measures must be taken to deal with these kinds of situations.

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Once this takes place, is when we can develop strategies that will help officers to be able to effectively cope with the continuing amounts of stress that they will face on the job.

Bad Stress and its Consequences for Police Officers at Home, on the Job as well as in Terms of their Mental / Physical Health

On the job stress can have a major impact on the quality of life for law enforcement officers. This is because, they are called upon by the community to deal with situations that are considered to be life threatening and dangerous. Once their shift is over, is when it is expected that these individuals should become productive members of the community that are supporting their basic values. The problem with this kind of thinking is that most people assume that police officers can turn off these emotions whenever they want to (without discussing the long-term impact of them on their underlying mental state). Over the course of time, this kind of stress can build up to the point that officers will react negatively. Once this occurs, is when there will be serious declines in their mental and physical health. This is the point that they will become more distant and unable to effectively cope with a wide variety of challenges. ("Impact of Stress on Police Officers," 2008)

How does Bad Stress Influence Police Officer Suicide Rates?

The stress that police officers are….....

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