Police Stress In Police Work

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Recommended: Causes of stress in the field of policing

The concept of stress is something every individual deals with throughout their lives. This stress that everyone deals with can come from a variety of different causes and reasons. Some jobs are just naturally stressful. Those jobs might have more responsibilities, rules, regulations and scrutiny that come with them. Police work is generally regarded as one of the most stressful jobs an individual can have. What makes police work that much more stressful than that of other jobs? Does the stress that police have on a daily basis affect that their families as well? Over time there have been many ways provided to ensure that police officers can better cope with all the stress that they incur on the job. Stress is defined as anything that places …show more content…

Those types of stress are eustress and distress. Eustress is a positive form of stress while distress is a harmful form of stress. When a police officer gets too much of distress, then that is when this type of stress can start to affect their personal and professional lives. Police officers are notoriously known for having levels of stress due to the effects of the job. On average police officers have one of the highest rates of suicide in the nation, the second highest rate of divorce and are twice as likely to develop an alcohol problem as any other profession. There are several stressors that police have deal with everyday that ultimately affects their personal and professional lives. There are several sources of stress that police deal with. One of those sources is that police officers are constantly exposed to other police officers and civilians that are enduring high levels of stress themselves. In many cases this everyday …show more content…

In many instances police officers bring the effects of the job homes with them. This form of stress affecting the police officer’s personal life can be seen in the officer overworking and over committing. The officer will bring the job home with him or her and neglect his or her spouse and the kids. This neglect of affection and communication that the officer has towards his/her spouse puts a lot of stress on the family. An officer that has truly been overcome with stress will neglect the family and in many cases start to neglect the other daily tasks of the house. (Miller, 2007) Another way that police stress can affect the officer’s personal life is through infidelity, lies and distrust. Police are generally required to work many of hours in their work week and this unfortunately can lead to infidelity, lies and distrust in the officer’s personal life. When the infidelity, lies and distrust happen in a relationship, this not only affects the relationship and stress of the family but also affects the stress that the officer then takes back in to work.(Miller,

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