Police function for enforcing law and maintaining order, ensuring life and property for citizens of the country and controlling crime and violence, which is linked to social service in modern democratic world. This entire responsibility mount on them heavy stress. Their personal life gets disturbed too, due to nature of their job, which is highly demanding. Life events and intrapsychic sources give rise to anxiety, frustrations and pressures in their lives. In recent years, rapid increase in negative incidences was observed in police organization, which not only affects police personnel, but hampers the organization also. Personality factors mediate between situational demands and their behaviour, which if negative, may lead to fatal consequences. So, it is relevant to investigate the various stresses and personality factors and its effects on mental health among police personnel as their psychological health is an emotion prerequisite of the society and state.Initial study has indicated presence of stress, negative personality factors and mental ill health.

During the past two decades, the nature of work has changed dramatically, as more and more organizations downsize, outsource and move toward short-term contracts, part-time working and teleworking. The costs of stress in the workplace in most of the developed and developing world have risen accordingly in terms of increased sickness absence, labour turnover, burnout, premature death and decreased productivity. This book, in one volume, provides all the major theories of organizational stress from the leading researchers and writers in the field. It is a guide to identifying the sources of pressures in jobs and the workplace so that we may be able to intervene to change and manage the growing problem of organizational stress.

The police fight a different kind of war, and the enemy is the police officer's own civilian population: those who engage in crime, social indignity, and inhumane treatment of others. The result for the police officer is both physical and psychological battering, occasionally culminating in the officer sacrificing his or her life to protect others. This book focuses on the psychological impact of police civilian combat. During a police career, the men and women of police agencies are exposed to distressing events that go far beyond the experience of the ordinary citizen, and there is an increased need today to help police officers deal with these traumatic experiences. As police work becomes increasingly complex, this need will grow. Mental health and other professionals need to be made aware of the conditions and precipitants of trauma stress among the police. The goal of this book is to provide that important information. The book's perspective is based on the idea that trauma stress is a product of complex interaction of person, place, situation, support mechanisms, and interventions. To effectively communicate this to the reader, new conceptual and methodological considerations, essays on special groups in policing, and innovative ideas on recovery and treatment of trauma are presented. This information can be used to prevent or minimize trauma stress and to help in establishing improved support and therapeutic measures for police officers. Contributions in the book are from professionals who work with police officers, and in some cases those who are or have been police officers, to provide the reader with different perspectives. Chapters are grouped into three sections: conceptual and methodological issues, special police groups, and recovery and treatment. The book concludes with a discussion of issues and identifies future directions for conceptualization, assessment, intervention, and effective treatment of psychological trauma in policing.

This book brings to the forefront the realization that a successful police career involves not only surviving the danger involved in policing but also psychological survival. In this book, a mixed approach is employed that includes research and some practical suggestions from practitioners on how best to deal with the police health crisis. It is based on research associated with police mental health together with the subsequent effects on officers’ performance, physical health, and lifestyle. It begins by outlining the current challenges faced by police, including increased civil unrest, negative public reactions, and a biological siege brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and depression are reviewed and how these two conditions have been shown to promote negative health issues such as cardiovascular disease and gastrointestinal disorders, comorbid psychological conditions as well as suicide. Resilience is also discussed and its role in ameliorating stress. An overview of factors related to resilience is provided and some of the mechanisms that underpin resilience in police work are examined. Additionally, suggestions are made that may help police organizations foster resiliency in officers. The final chapter asks the question, “Where do we go from here?” The chapter discusses current legislation that will help police deal with the problem of psychological and physical health and suicide. Interventions discussed include the need for wellness programs, reducing stress through the police organization, peers support development, the use of mindfulness as a stress reduction strategy, PTSD mitigation, and reducing the fatigue health effects of shift work.

This compilation of articles on job-related stress in policing addresses the complexities of the stress syndrome among police officers and advocates the incorporation of a stress intervention and management component into police officer training programs. The volume is designed for practical use by police officers and administrators. Articles are arranged in topical sections and begin with an orientation and introduction to the general subject, providing terminology and background to some of the principle psychological, physiological, and social consequences of stress. Job stress and some of its more destructive manifestations in police officers, such as alcoholism, divorce, other family problems, and suicide are examined. In addition, specific and unique stress experienced by women and minorities in law enforcement is also discussed. Recommendations are given concerning the most effective ways that both the officer and the law enforcement agency can deal with these problems. Articles on stress and the police administrator concern factors in the managerial task and function that contribute to stress. Among them are upward mobility with accompanying loss of supportive relationships among colleagues, family, and friends; the risks of decisionmaking with consequences affecting the lives of many people; and political pressures in balancing resources against goals and objectives. Under the topic of stress and the family, articles look at the toll exacted on wives, children and relatives of police personnel by the stressful aspects of police work, of which the high divorce rate is but the most visible consequence. The concluding section presents organizational and individual programs for coping with stress, illustrated by stress control and counseling programs available to officers, administrators, and families in the police departments of Miami, Dallas, and Chicago. A retirement counseling program for police officers is also discussed because of the unique nature of police retirement, which occurs early and isolates former officers from agency friends and informal peer groups that have served as a source of personal support. Tabular data and endnotes accompany individual articles. The appendix contains a listing of police stress training films. An index is also supplied.

Author and forensic consultant Victoria Hargan reveals personality traits and characteristics that may be responsible for the high risk of domestic violence perpetrated by police officers. Police Personality and Domestic Violence offers a forensic psychological approach and review of literature on the scope of the problem when domestic violence is committed by a police officer. Research suggests that personality traits of police officers are similar to domestic abusers and that it is these very traits that make police officers effective at police work. Personality characteristics such as authoritative, aggressive, assertive, controlling and suspicious help the officer in his duties. These same personality traits are also negative traits in battering relationships. Domestic violence perpetrated by police officers is a result of multifaceted dynamics, including the individual police officer's personality, police culture, police training, and exposure to violence on the job, a sense of entitlement, and influence of the administration of the police agency. These dynamics may predispose police officers to domestic violence. This book offers suggestions for the pre-selection of police candidates, in addition to reviewing the psychological instruments used in police selection. A must read for forensic evaluators, the law enforcement community, and the medical and mental health communities.

The objective of this book is to demonstrate how adopting a career perspective can provide a more comprehensive conceptualization of traumatic stress processes as they apply to police officers and agencies and provide a framework that can be used to guide research and intervention agenda in ways that reflect the changes that can occur over the course of a police career that can span decades. The book examines the nature and effectiveness of the police role in dealing with adverse events as they unfold within a career perspective. It begins with pre-employment experiences and their implications for operational well-being and concludes with a discussion of the implications of a police career for disengagement or retirement from this role. It draws upon empirical research to provide an evidence-based approach to traumatic stress risk management and well-being in contemporary policing. Based on state-of-the-art research, the book provides a framework that police agencies can use to develop their officers and their organizations in ways that enhance their capability to confront an increasingly uncertain future in ways that maximize the interests of front-line policing. Areas of discussion include incorporation of police trauma into a life-career course perspective; changing context and nature of police work; recruitment, selection, and socialization in the context of critical incident and terrorist work; changing gender balance; training in uncertain times; managing risk and vulnerability; organizational context; family dynamics; inter and intraorganizational teams; health and mental health; consequences of long-term exposure to hazards; and disengagement and retirement. The text will be of significant interest to police organizations and agencies whose officers face a high risk of experiencing disaster and traumatic stress, law enforcement managerial and supervisory personnel, human resource and health and safety professionals, and mental health professionals and consultants. The text will also be relevant to those researching traumatic stress, disaster stress, and emergency management as well as other protective services.