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Essay on Stress Felt by Police & Their Families
Police officers and members of their families believe their job to be one of the most traumatic. It is difficult to differ with that opinion, as officers themselves report high rates of divorce, alcoholism, suicide, and other emotional and health problems (Burke, 1989; Delprino et al, 1997). No job is unaffected from stress, although for the law enforcement officer, the strains and tensions experienced at work are exceptional, often extreme, and sometimes inescapable.
Maslach and her group (Maslach et al, 1981; Maslach, 1982) argue that the current concept of stress is too broad and subject to misconception, since some stress might be “difficult” although positive in nature, or negative in nature etc. She has developed the concept of burnout to tackle how well a person is able to relate to his or her environment and has evaluated this along an axis of emotional exhaustion, pessimism and personal accomplishment.Within this framework one might conceive of a situation where a person feels stress, however will react in a different way to that challenge depending on the balance between their sense of emotional exhaustion, disconnection from others, and personal accomplishment. In this vein of thought, Police officers may have a higher capacity to tolerate very difficult situations as long as they are accomplishing something useful and if they are supported by those to whom they feel connected.
Sources of Stress
Experience to violence, suffering, and death is intrinsic to the profession of law enforcement officer. There are other sources of stress too. Officers who cope with criminals on a daily basis may view some sentences as too relaxed; they may see the public’s opinion of police performance to be critical; they often are required to work compulsory, rotating shifts; and they may not have enough time to spend with their families.Police officers also face abnormal, often highly disturbing, situations, such as dealing with a child homicide victim or the survivors of vehicle crashes......
