The Importance of Psychology Amongst Police Officers - Research Paper Example

? The Importance of Psychology Amongst Police Officers Introduction There is little doubt that police work is brutal and stressful. Police officers encounter a range of different scenarios on any given day that would bring stress to the heartiest of humans. These might include getting shot at, seeing a dead body, comforting battered children, seeing a comrade killed, etc., etc. Women police officers might experience all of this, and might also experience stress related to the fact that she is a woman in a man's field. Therefore she might experience discrimination and harassment, strictly based upon her gender. Both men and women experience a lot of other stress as well, and this stress is related to every day occurrences bad bosses, changing shifts, going into areas where cops are not welcome, administrative paperwork, bureaucracy, etc. In short, police officers are faced with a great deal of stress and there is increasing evidence that this stress is detrimental to the mental health of the police officers and the spouse and possibly children of the police officers. Perhaps that is why police forces are increasingly reliant upon mental health screening of their possible candidates. While it would be impossible to eliminate the stress of the job, it is possible to find candidates who are mentally sound enough that the job will affect them less then another person who does not have this mental soundness. Of course, just because a person has an even mental disposition does not mean that the person will not experience job stress - he or she just might handle it better. Therefore, mental health screening is de rigueur in most police forces today, and this screening is accompanied by other screening, including credit checks. While the screening is helpful in making sure that the people who become officers are mentally sound, this does not negate the need for support for the officers once they are on the job. This is crucial. Officers need on-going help in not only coping with the stressors that accompany the job, but also in coping with the stress of life itself. An important study shows that job stress is not left at the job, but, in fact, carries over into interpersonal relationships and the affect on these relationships is extremely detrimental. In fact, the affect of job stress is a literal marriage killer. Which makes things even worse, as a person has to have emotional support outside the job. This is especially true for women. Therefore, such police support as wellness training, in which police officers are offered ways of managing their stress by smoking cessation, coping with bereavement, eldercare, assertiveness training, weight management and eating disorders, parenting skills, spousal orientation (helping officers with their interpersonal relationships with their spouses), and retirement issues, is just as important, if not more important, then training about how to cope with on the job situations. There is a definitive need for quality, on-going psychological help for policemen and women of today. This paper will explore this topic in depth. The first section deals with the historical roots of police psychology, especially the evolution of police screening. The next section deals with the specifics of screening techniques. The third section deals with occupational stress. The fourth section deals with how police forces are aiding in combatting this stress. The fifth section is the conclusion. History of Police Psychology Policy psychology had its genesis in the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA), which is now defunct. The LEAA was dedicated to procuring new technology to police forces, and, as a part of this, they procured research and development from experimental and engineering psychologists (Scrivner & Kurke, 1995, p. 5). This was an attempt by Congress to make the police forces become more ?uman sensitive(Bartol, 1996, p. 71). This was used to select police force. However, most of the work down by the LEAA was in the form of technical reports (Scrivner & Kurke, 1995, p. 5). The second tradition, according to Scrivner & Kurke (1995) was that psychological services was directly delivered to police agencies. In this realm, psychologists and other mental health professionals from the federal, state and local agencies were employed by various police forces. Access to these services by individual law enforcement personnel was mediated by the Employee Assistance Program (EAP), and these programs developed in differing paces. The third tradition, according to Scrivner & Kurke is that psychologists were engaged in behavioral science-based research, and used these skills to development tests for selection and assessment of law enforcement, as well as for career development and program planning. Practical approaches for the law enforcement agencies for these behavioral science techniques includes hostage negotiations, criminal profiling and improving witness recall (Scrivner & Kurke, 1995, p. 5). While Scrivner & Kurke contends that policy psychology began in the 1960s, with the advent of the LEAA, Bartol (1996) pegs its genesis much earlier, to around the turn of the century. They state that there was a concern about police officers during this time, specifically that they were not very intelligent and had low aptitude for the job. This was seemingly confirmed in 1916 when a Stanford Binet standard intelligence test was administered to fire fighters and police officers in San Jose, California, and the results were that the ?olice applicants were not a very intelligent lot(Scrivner & Kurke, 1995, p. 73). Thus, this was a concern with the cognitive functioning of police officers, not necessarily their mental health, and this was the main concern of police psychologists until the 1960s. By the 1960s, police forces were using Stanford & Binet and other IQ tests for police officers, but these were supplemented, by and large, by other tests including aptitude testing, and a minority (22%) was even using personality inventories and psychiatric interviews. That said, these tests and inventories were not usually administered by a psychologist, as only 6 of the 55 cities studied actually had a psychologist on tap (Scrivner & Kurke, 1995, p. 74). However, by the mid-1960s, the emphasis on IQ testing was lessened, due to questions about the test itself and the possibility that this test would have an adverse impact on minority applicants. Along with this shift came an increased emphasis on the personality traits of potential officers (Scrivner & Kurke, 1995, p. 74). Which brings us again to the LEAA. As stated above, before the LEAA, there were very few mental health professionals that were available to law enforcement. This was partly due to the fact that personality and mental health traits were not emphasized for new hires or for existing policemen, because cognitive functioning was the trait that was most prized during this time. Mostly, however, it was a matter of funding. The forces simply did not have the funds to hire mental health professionals. The LEAA, which was a centerpiece of then-President Lyndon Johnson's so-called ?ar on crime,and, along with funding mental health professionals, the LEAA also provided funding for ?echnical assistance, materials, training, college education...and research, including searches for selection procedures that would identify emotionally suitable police officers(Scrivner & Kurke, 1995, p. 74). Thus, the shift from officer intelligence to officer emotional stability and mental health was complete. The police forces started their slow evolution towards personality assessment. The evolution has brought us to the current time, in which police psychologists are increasingly used and their primary role is to pre-screen police force candidates. The nation's largest police forces, as of 1995, had psychologists working in this capacity and 71% of the psychologists sampled in a study were working on pre-screening police force candidates. This has led to a wide agreement upon the clinical interview information that raises a concern about police job candidates (Kurke & Scrivner, 1995, p. 424). Therefore, there is a wide agreement as to what kind of psychological results might raise a concern about a candidate. Nowadays, police psychologists work with a police forces in a variety of capacities, including evaluation, counseling and training. The evaluation process involves screening out candidates who might have the emotional instability that would be detrimental to their job. The counseling process involves counseling current police officers, and their families. Training involves a response to on-going needs that come from varied experiences, and the needs for training for specific aspects of the job, such as subduing a suspect with pepper spray. Psychologists are also used to develop techniques which are helpful to law enforcement, including hypnosis and hostage negotiations, as well as developing investigative interviewing techniques, psychological profiling and psychological autopsies. Psychologists are further used for organizational development and policy consultation purposes (Kurke & Scrivner, 1995, pp. 11-12). Psychologists may also be used for criminal profiling (Valier, 1998, p. 88). Screening Techniques Kurke & Scrivner (1995) describe a typical screening process for potential new hires. One of the assessments consists of asking the potential officers to perform in situations that would present real-world situations. This looks at the person's ?ative adaptivity - in other words, it looks at the person's innate ability to do the functions that are required (Kurke & Scrivner, 1995, p. 65). Obviously, if a person comes in for a job and is asked to simulate a real-world experience and that person shows extreme anxiety and an inability to keep a clear head, that person might not be right for the job. On the other hand, if another person comes in and calmly completes the procedure, and shows a real ability to think on his or her feet, that person has potential. Of course, the person does not have training at this point, but the goal of this particular assessment is to ascertain individuals who are innately able to do the job. Selection interviews is another assessment. These are a key element to the hiring process, because the individual can be observed, while the hiring official can look for such elements as behavior, interaction and style (Kurke & Scrivner, 1995, p. 65). Kurke & Scrivner recommends that these interviews be standardized, as this allows for a better comparison between applicants, and gives each applicant the same chance to present themselves. Kurke & Scrivner also recommend that psychological screening be a part of this selection process, and the interview itself provides a basis for the interpretation of the psychological testing results (Kurke & Scrivner, 1995, p. 65). The selection interviews should be followed up by a thorough criminal background check (Kurke & Scrivner, 1995, p. 65). Psychological testing also plays a part after an officer has been hired. If an officer presents a risk, that is identified by an independent source, because of the officer's behavior, then that officer might be subjected to a psychological examination called psychological fitness for duty (FFD) evaluation. This FFD is usually used for law officers, but may also be used for dispatchers, nonsworn technicians or jailers, animal control officer and other individuals. If one of these individuals is referred for an FFD, they are given an FFD evaluation, which calls for a licensed psychologist to administer a psychological test. This is not fool-proof, however, as Kurke & Scrivner (1995) cautions. He tells stories about law enforcement that was returned to work by doctors who had no relationship with the police force in question, and sometimes doctors due cursory examinations at best (Kurke & Scrivner, 1995, p. 115). That said, there are other pre-employment screening techniques that law enforcement offices can use. For instance, a ?hole personevaluation may be conducted. This means that the applicant is looked at en toto, as opposed to just facets of one's personality or mental health makeup. A person may not necessarily present well on any cognitive or aptitude test, for instance, but if the person's educational background is explored, it may be found that this person has other attributes which might make him or her right for the job. The person might have drive and achievement that is not measured by standardized tests. The applicant may also have to undergo a credit check, on the assumption that, if a person is deeply in dept, he or she might understandably be more tempted to take bribes and kickbacks. Educational requirements is another facet, and, specifically, most forces require a high school diploma and evidence of aptitude, such as a writing sample. Biodata, consisting of questions regarding life and work experiences, opinions, values, beliefs and attitudes is another measure that may be used to pre-screen applicants. Employment history, in which an applicant can demonstrate that previous work experience has given him or her the skills to cope with the job is another screening tool, as is an employment appraisal history. This is how well the employee had performed the previous jobs that he or she has held. References is another facet, and employers should focus upon the references that the employee does not list, as there is an old adage that ?nyone dumb enough to list a character reference who would not recommend them is unfit for the job in consideration(Kurke & Scrivner, 1995, p. 68). The other components of a good screening is a medical clearance, as the applicant obviously has to have the physical capabilities to be an officer, and the mental health screening, which has been mentioned extensively above. Legal Issues Police psychological screening and other screening techniques are not without scrutiny. The right for police forces to use psychological testing and other kinds of testing to evaluate potential hires has been one that has been tested in the courts and by different legal statutes that have come about since the 1960s. Conte v. Horcher was an Illinois case that dealt with a fitness for duty evaluation, which was performed after an officer subdued forcibly a man in his custody. This court ruled that this was a proper function. Bonsignore v. The City of New York was a landmark 1981 case which ruled that police forces could be vicariously liable for the actions of their employees on the job. Among other things, police forces had to show that they did not negligently hire their employees, because this would make them liable. Because of this, police forces were further justified in using their psychological screening techniques to evaluate new hires (Kurke & Scrivner, 1995, p. 96-97). The Civil Rights Act 1964 further gave legitimation to the evaluation process, as the Act specifically stated that screening was acceptable, as long as the screening did not result in a violation of a person's right to be hired regardless of age, sex, religion, race, color or national origin (Kurke & Scrivner, 1995, p. 97). That said, these tests are also slightly under fire by other Act that Congress has passed, including the Rehabilitation Act 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act 1991. The Rehabilitation Act states that if a person is ?therwise qualifiedfor a position, that he or she cannot be denied a position because of a handicap. This was used to ensure a job for an applicant with epilepsy who was rejected by the police force, as in the case of Duran v. Tampa in 1978. The Duran court ruled that rejecting an applicant simply because he had epilepsy violated this Act. Kurke & Scrivner (1995) stated that The Rehabilitation Act 1973 presented a problem for law enforcement, as the mandates were put forth without the input of psychologists. The Americans with Disabilities Act 1991, seeing this problem, rectified it, as two tasks forces worked on the ADA. These task forces were staffed with psychologists who specialized in police psychology, psychological testing and forensic psychology (Kurke & Scrivner, 1995, p. 99). Occupational Stress The emphasis on psychological screening is justified because of the sheer amount of occupational stress that police men and women are under. Liberman et al. (2002) state that the stress that police men and women endure leads to increased divorce rates, suicide, and cardiovascular and gastrointestinal disorders (Liberman et al., 2002, p. 421). One of the major sources of stress is the critical incident exposure, which is when a police officer encounters an incident when either the officer or another person is threatened with death or great bodily harm, and the officer either witnesses this event or is the actual target. Since this kind of event might occur frequently, the officer experiences post-traumatic stress disorder. Lliberman et al. (2002) states that the average officer sees, throughout his or her career, 5 recently dead bodies, 14 decaying corpses, ten sexually assaulted children, colleagues being badly injured twice accidentally and once intentionally, and the officers themselves being serious shot at once and injured more than once(Liberman et al., 2002, p. 422). The reason why the initial psychological testing is so crucial is that, despite what officers go through on the job, only a small minority of them actually develop full-blown PTSD. Just like in Vietnam, where only about 15 percent of the men, and 8 percent of the women who came back from Vietnam encountered problems with PTSD, only a small minority of police officers experience this (Liberman et al., 2002, p. 422). It stands to reason that, the more psychologically healthy an individual is coming into the job with the police force, the more the person will be able to handle the stresses of the job and not experience full-blown PTSD. While the crucial events that occur in an officer's life is one major stressor, another stressor involves more routine police work. This includes administrative, bureaucratic and organizational stressors, and many police officers report that such stressors are as stressful as the critical incident exposures. In this case, when asking officers about specific stressors, most of them answered ?ourts, administrative policies and lack of support, inadequate equipment, community relations and changing work shifts(Liberman et al., 2002, p. 423). In fact, the overwhelming majority of officers see these aspects as more stressful then critical incident exposure, as a study done on Midwest police officers showed that 2/3 of these officers answered that these routine stressors were the most stressful part of their jobs, and only 6 mentioned the dangers of the job. This was echoed in studies conducted in Maryland and Virginia and England (Liberman et al., 2002, p. 423). Nevertheless, when asked for specific events, officers more likely than not mentioned dangerous events, such as watching an officer killed in the line of duty, killing someone in the line of duty and witnessing battered and dead children. Liberman et al.(2002) states that, the reason why officers do not spontaneously recall these stressors when studies are conducted about the stress of police work is simple these dangerous situations happen infrequently, while the administration hassles happen every day. Another theory is that the police officers knew that danger would be a part of the job; they were not prepared, however, for the administration hassles (Liberman et al. 2002, p. 423). Liberman et al. (2002) conducted a study to determine the extent that routine stressors had on an officer's psychological well-being. They recruited participants, in 1998 and 1999, from three large United States urban police departments, with women and minorities over-recruited. Their targets were 50% white, 25 % African American and 25% Hispanic, and the male to female ration was 4-1. They used the Work Environment Inventory (WEI) to assess the amount of routine occupational stressors, including stressors involving ?anagement and administration, supervisors, pay, shift work...public attitudes towards ones' profession, equipment, training, boredom, role conflict and peers(Liberman et al., 2002, p. 426). The amount of psychological stress on the officers was measured with the SCL-90 R, which measures symptoms of stress experienced during the previous 7 days. They also measured the amount of social support for these officers, as social support is often a buffer for stress, and this social support was measured using the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study. Liberman et al. (2002) found, perhaps not surprisingly, that ?outine occupational stressors predicts psychological distress among urban police officers(Liberman et al., 2002, p. 432). Their study thus bolsters the other studies that were done on the police officers, as noted above. Of course, these results were not surprising because of the way that the test was conducted. The test specifically measures stress levels reported within the previous 7 days. Chances are great that the officers who took this test did not experience a critical stressor within the past 7 days, so it stands to reason that these officer's stress within the past 7 days had more to do with everyday stressors then with a critical stressor. While Liberman et al. did not indicate if the previous studies cited by them used the same criteria, but, if they did, then these studies may not be accurate or may be misleading. A better gauge would be to ask the officers about the amount of stress that they experienced within the past year, as probably many of them would have experienced a critical incident during this time, and see what the answers might be. While it is clear from these studies cited above that all officers experience stress, even if it is not entirely clear from these if this stress is mainly from every day stressors or critical stressors, the studies did not delineate between stressors experienced by male officers and by female officers. There was, for a long period of time, a paucity of evidence regarding gender differences in the experiencing of job-related stress. Ni He et al. (2002) attempted to rectify this with their 2002 study which teased out gender differences in police stress. They theorized that there might be a substantial gender discrepancy between men and women on the police job, as women, in general, report more incidents of depression and stress than men, and that men and women conceive and adapt to stress in different ways. Add to this the fact that females might be treated differently on the job, as discrimination and harassment are experienced more by women then men, and that the police organizational culture is more adversarial towards women then men, and Ni He et al. (2002) theorized that women and men would experience substantially different levels of on-the-job stress. True to their theory, Ni He et al. (2002) found that women did experience more stress on the job then do men, at least as far as depression and somatization (physical symptoms of stress). They also found that constructive coping techniques were helpful in reducing depression in female officers, including faith in God; prayer; talking with spouses, relatives or friends about the problems on the job; and making a plan and following it. Men, perhaps not surprisingly, relied less on spiritual guidance and talking with the spouse in dealing with their problems of on-the-job stress (Ni He et al., 2002, p. 698). McCarty et al. (2007) conducted a follow-up study of sorts to the Ni He study. They sought to also quantify sex-related differences in officer stress and burnout. They noted that, in addition to the factors put forth by Ni He for the disproportionate stress of female officers, namely that the police culture is harsher to women then men, that women also experienced other specific stressors that might make their jobs more stressful then male officers. One of these is that police officers are expected to work odd shifts, and these shifts are not always conducive to family life. Unfair hiring practices are another stressor, as women perceive that the culture is unfair to hiring other women, and this increases stress (McCarty et al., 2007, pp. 676-677). While McCarty et al. (2007) by and large echoed the Ni He study, they also expanded upon it, as they specifically measured the level of burnout and how burnout levels differed between men and women. Ni He simply studied stress. Burnout was defined by McCarty as stress that has been ill-managed over a long period of time. Burnout affects not only job performance, but relationships with family members and friends. McCarty theorized that women do not have the necessary social support to manage on-going stress, which makes them more susceptible to burnout. This is exacerbated, according to McCarty, by the fact that women often feel a lack of camaraderie with the men, and feel a fundamental unfairness. However, despite their theories, their study found that men and women experience substantially equal levels of stress and burnout. That said, black women experience more burnout and stress then do white women; on the other hand, black men and white men experience roughly the same amount of stress and burnout, according to their study. They also found that negative exposure, such as going to a funeral, making a violent arrest, and possibly shooting someone increased burnout in women, but did not increase stress (McCarty, 2007, p. 679). This shows that these kinds of stressors had much more impact long-term then short-term, and perhaps refutes the the results shown by Liberman above. Therefore, the jury is still out as far as women and men and their coping with the stress of the job. One study shows that women do experience more stress then men. Another study shows that this is not the case. Significantly, one study was conducted in 2002, the other in 2007. The earlier study is the one that found more burnout with women then men. What this could indicate is that police forces are evolving in their responses to women. As society progresses, it seems that attitudes towards gender becomes more enlightened, and women are more accepted in performing men's jobs with each passing year. Therefore, it is possible that police forces have become more accepting to women over the years, and this would decrease the amount of stress and depression a woman might feel on the job. And, as stated above, the fact that women suffer long-term effects from negative exposure, called critical stressors by Liberman, but not short-term affects bolsters the analysis that Liberman's study might be flawed. As stated above, Liberman's study focused on a seven day period, and found that everyday stressors were more acutely felt then critical stressors. The analysis was that this study was flawed because critical stressors probably did not occur in the officer's lives within the previous seven days, therefore the officers will report the more recent stressors. This is only human nature to report about what is bothering one currently as opposed to bothering one a long time in the past, even if that past event was horrifying or even debilitating. This would be the explanation for why critical stressors affect female burnout but not everyday stress, and this would also illustrate why Liberman's study was flawed. One can guarantee that, if the officers responding to Liberman's study had witnessed a colleague being killed just before taking this test that this event, the colleague being killed, would rate much higher as a stressor then the every day administrative hassles. Another example of occupational stress which has been touched upon, but not elaborated upon, is the stress that comes when interpersonal relationships between couples breaks down due to one's occupation. This was the topic of interest for Roberts & Levenson (2001). They studied the effects of on-the-job stress for police couples, studying 19 male officers and their spouses. The couples were asked to keep a stress diary for 30 days. Roberts & Levenson predicted that emotional issues would be a marital stressor, as it was shown in previous studies that this was the case. In particular, the burnout factor, in which an individual is in a ?hronic state of physical and emotional depletion that results from excessive job demands and continuous hasslesis ?ne of the strongest predictors of negative outcomes for individuals in and out of the work environment(Roberts & Levenson, 2001, p. 1053). They also state that the anger, impatience and other negative feelings that one experiences when they are burned-out at work spills over into their home life, as these feelings are expressed there as well. Roberts & Levenson further stated that previous studies had found that the amount of tension one experiences at work had more to do with negative outcomes at home then the amount of work one was doing. So, if a man was experiencing stress at work, even if he only worked part-time or a forty hour work-week, his home life would suffer more than if he were working a 70 hour work week, but was satisfied with his job (Roberts & Levenson, 2001, p. 1053). Not surprisingly, Roberts & Levenson also found that people who are under a great deal of stress at their jobs and are experiencing exhaustion regarding their jobs affects spouse's emotional responses, and that individuals are more negative in general when they are under stress. More stress means more negative moods and fewer positive moods, and this produces physical symptoms as well as psychological ones. The physical symptoms includes elevated heart rates and an increase in the autonomic nervous system (ANS) arousal, which is the ?ight or flightresponse. Perhaps not coincidentally, couples who are in troubled marriages also shown high levels of ANS activation. Physical exhaustion can also result from prolonged periods of stress, so that the person's energy is drained and it is more difficult to socially interact, and positive interactions are more strained still. Physical exhaustion may also be related to the changing shifts on a police job (Roberts & Levenson, 2001, p. 1053). As stated above, Roberts & Levenson conducted a study that helped them understand the effects that police work and the stressors that accompany police work has on couples. They studied 19 couples and hand them write a stress diary for 30 days. They also completed questionnaires and conducted interaction sessions, where the couples visited the researcher's laboratory at the University of California-Berkeley for a 1.5 hour session each week. During this session, the couples were asked to refrain from talking to one another for 8 hours before the session. When the couples arrived at the laboratory, they were asked to complete a questionnaire that rated how physically and mentally exhausted they were feeling. They were also asked to be silent for 5 minutes, and talk about their day for 15 minutes, and, during this time, physiological measures were taken and a video recording was made. After the interaction, the couples were asked to watch the videotape of themselves and turn a dial indicating how negative or positive they were feeling during different points of the interaction (Roberts & Levenson, 2001, p. 1056). Roberts & Levenson's study showed definitively that police couples were under stress because of the stress of the policeman's job. The job stress was there, regardless of how well the marital situation was going, what shift the husband worked and the parenthood status of the couple. Accumulated stress over the span of a week made little difference then stress that was experienced that very day. They also noted that, true to their theory, the couples showed a greater ANS response during their conversations. Because of this increased stress, Robert & Levenson noted that these couples were not able to resolve conflict in a healthy way, but, rather, relied upon ?verlearned, defensive and self-protective behaviors(Roberts & Levenson, 2001, p. 1063). In other words, the couples had learned counterproductive ways of resolving stress, and these are the mechanisms that they feel back upon when dealing with conflict, as opposed to learning new and productive ways of handling interpersonal stress, and part of the reason for this was because the couples were exhausted and under stress. The researchers also found that the couples exhibited high cardiovascular response but lower somatic behavior during days that were high stress. They stated that this was an indication that the couples were literally frozen with fear, as this is a response that is shown in animals in a state of intense fear. The researchers theorized that this kind of response is helpful to officers because it helps them react quickly to high stress situations, yet it was counterproductive to their home life because they carried this reaction back home, so to speak. This, in turn, made the wives also defensive and heightened their ANS response, as she anticipated difficult marital interactions, or, alternatively, was looking for a way to alleviate her husband's stress. The researchers also found that positive marital interaction was dampened by the negative moods that were carried over from the job. Nevertheless, the wives showed behavior which would be helpful to the situation, as they instinctively reacted, in a positive way, towards their husband when the husband had a bad day. The researchers still thought that these kinds of interactions, even with the mediating behavior of the wife, would still lead to distancing and withdrawal, and this would ultimately be the downfall of the marriage (Roberts & Levenson, 2001, p. 1064). Roberts & Levenson offers another reason why psychiatric services are so vital for police forces. They showed definitely that male police officers are under a great deal of stress, and this stress effectively destroys their marriages. Police officers must learn to cope with this kind of stress, because a support system is valuable. When the police officer's marriage is destroyed, and their wives leave them, then they are deprived of a valuable source of support, which will make their lives even more stressful. It thus becomes a vicious circle, spiraling ever downward. The officers are under stress, so their marriages suffer. Their marriages suffer so much that the spouse leaves. This, in turn, adds more stress and pressure, and the officer feels even more exhausted, stressed, burned-out and despondent. Etc. The trick is to get the officer the help that he or she needs to cope with the job so that their marriages do not end. Police Psychology It is obvious that police forces experience a significant amount of stress on the job, even if what exactly causes the most stress remains to be seen. Therefore, there is a great need to address this on-going stress. This section will deal with some of the ways that precincts around the country are dealing with the problem of officer stress. One of the mediating factors regarding stress and burnout is the perceived organizational support factor (Armeli et al., 1998). This is the extent to which the employee feels that his or her employer values his or her contribution to the organization. This perception is influenced by the policies and procedures of the organization. Armeli et al. (1998) found that the POS affected the employees' ?ource of esteem, affiliation, emotional support, and approval in the workplace(Armeli et al., 1998, p. 293). To this end, police forces have attempted to demonstrate their caring for their individual officers by offering them training to help them cope with their needs. One kind of training is wellness training. Specifically, employees are encouraged to take classes that help them cope with their daily lives, both on and off the job. The emphasis is on giving the officer new ways to cope with stressful daily situations, which might include anything from teaching meditation to encouraging officers to adopt a healthy lifestyle of balance, healthy eating, exercising and making time for family members and friends. Other topics addressed in wellness training includes smoking cessation, coping with bereavement, eldercare, assertiveness training, weight management and eating disorders, parenting skills, spousal orientation (helping officers with their interpersonal relationships with their spouses), and retirement issues (Kurke & Scrivner, 1995, p. 260). Informational and skills training is another way that police forces are showing support for their officers. This is training that better helps the officer perform his or her job. Among the issues that an officer confronts on his or her day to day job, therefore is a topic of interest for the informational and skills training, are a need for superior communication skills, skills with cultural awareness and sensitivity and skills relating to the ability to de-escalate and appropriately manage conflict. Officers must also have skills related to understanding mental illness, crisis management and victimology. Hostage negotiation, peer counseling and other areas are also available for training for some officers (Kurke & Scrivner, 1995, p. 267). To this end, skill training may focus upon handling the mentally ill, in which law enforcement is exposed to different kinds of mental illnesses to which they might be exposed, and this helps them understand the nature of these illnesses, which, in turn, helps the officer predict the behavior of the mentally ill; crisis management, which focuses upon helping officers understand how others feel, think and behave in crisis; cross-cultural training, which helps officers understand the mores and customs of the different cultural groups to which they might be exposed; cross-cultural awareness, which helps officers identify any biases that they might have against other cultures and learn to address them; and peer counseling basic training, which assists in crisis management by training the officer in such skills as active listening, suicide assessment, identification of appropriate referrals and so on; communication training, which helps the officer adapt communication skills for dealing with citizens and suspects; psychological indicators, which helps officers read non-verbal behavior, develop listening skills and understand the dynamics of human behavior; hostage negotiations, which helps officers understand mental illness and the relationship of mental illness to hostage situations; domestic violence, which helps an officer understand the dynamics of domestic violence situations and also helps officers understand where to send people for referrals and resources; gay community, which helps officers understand the gay community and recognize any bias they might have against homosexuals, as well as help the officer with overcoming these biases; sexual assault, which helps the officer handle these kinds of cases; use of force, in which the officer understands the continuum involving the use of force; and critical incident performance, which helps officers perform under the stress of an on-going critical incident. This includes ?tress inoculation training, developing a survival mind-set, mental rehearsal, role play, and so on(Kurke & Scrivner, 1995, p. 272). Therefore, skills training involved the whole gamut of experience that an officer might encounter on the job, and uses psychological training and help in identifying biases, as well as practical knowledge, so that an officer might be best equipped to handle any situation he or she encounters. Conclusion Police work has been a stressful job for years. There does not seem to be a good solution for it, either. It is difficult for men and women to cope with both everyday stress and catastrophic stress, and this inability to cope leads to both burnout and failed relationships. While the meager steps that police forces have taken to attempt to alleviate this stress, including wellness programs and programs designed to help the officer respond to on-the-job situations, are a good start, they cannot begin to address the sheer amount of stress that these officers face. There therefore should be on-going research on how to address stress in the life of an officer. Perhaps new programs can be developed from this research that can help. This shows the importance of psychological interventions within the police force, and the psychology of the officers must be adequately addressed. Bibliography Armeli, S., Eisenberger, R., Fasolo, P. & Lynch, P. (1998) Perceived organizational support and police performance: The moderating influence of socioemotional needs. Journal of Applied Psychology, 83(2): 288-297. Bartol, C. (1996) Police psychology: Then, now, and beyond. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 23: 70- 89. Kurke, M. and Scrivner, E.(1995) Police Psychology Into the 21st Century, Psychology Press, Taylor & Francis Group Liberman, A., Best, S., Metzler, T., Fagan, J., Weiss, D. & Marmar, C. (2002) Routine occupational stress and psychological distress in police. Policing, 25(2): 421-439. McCarty, W., Zhao, J. & Garland, B. (2007) Occupational stress and burnout between male and female police officers. Policing, 20(4): 672-691. Ni He, A., Zhao, J., Archbold, C. (2002) Gender and police stress. Policing, 25(4): 687-708. Roberts, N. & Levenson, R. (2001) The remains of the workday: Impact of job stress and exhaustion on marital interaction in police couples. Journal of Marriage and Family, 63: 1052-1067. Valier, C. (1998) True crime stories. British Journal of Criminology, 38(1): 88-105. Read More