An Examination of Officer Stress: Should Police Departments Implement Mandatory Counseling?

This study suggests that police departments who promote counseling benefit from officer stress reduction. Officers from sixteen municipal police departments (n = 1,114) across the state of Alabama possessed moderate stress, but were influenced significantly by organizational demographics (including counseling opportunities). A majority of officers believed that stress signs were not predictive of police suitability but remained reluctant to share fears and anxieties with fellow colleagues, suggesting that officers feared the stigma associated with the need for stress counseling. Officers working in supportive counseling climates had significantly less stress, a reduced need for counseling, and a greater willingness to use counseling. Officers who engaged in counseling (at least occasionally) also reported more stress, indicating an awareness of their need for counseling. The authors concluded that police departments should consider requiring mandatory and periodic counseling for all officers, a procedural tactic that camouflages counseling need while concurrently treating the source of officer stress.     

Voluntary turnover of field operations officers: A test of confluency theory

This article explores classic and contemporary explanations for voluntary police turnover in one of the largest police departments in the Southeast—the Birmingham (Alabama) Police Department (BPD). It specifically tests confluency theory and eight variables associated with job satisfaction as predictors of turnover among field operations officers. Confluency theory, an untested theory, attributes police turnover to an absence of preemployment job awareness and to incongruencies between job expectations and job realities. Results from a survey of 232 current officers and 60 former officers disagreed with conventional wisdom and the majority of turnover research findings. Former BPD officers were generally more satisfied with their jobs in BPD than current officers. Logistic regression further indicated that confluency theory and the job satisfaction variables investigated are poor predictors of field operations officers who leave the BPD.     

Tokenism and job satisfaction for policewomen

Women law enforcement officers from New Jersey and Pennsylvania participated in a self-administered anonymous survey. The objective of this study was to capture the respondent’s attitudes toward work and ascertain their levels of job satisfaction using Wharton and Barton’s (1991) job satisfaction scales. Their levels of job satisfaction were correlated with the proportion of women in their respective departments. Using Kanter’s (1977) concept of tokenism, it was found that those women who made up less than 15% of their department experienced less job satisfaction, greater levels of job-related depression, and lower self-esteem than those women working in departments where their numbers comprised greater than 15% of their departmental sworn personnel.     

Family Leave and Law Enforcement: A Survey of Parents in U.S. Police Departments

The women of United States police departments challenge traditional gender role expectations by exhibiting equal competence in a job with a masculine identity. Women also modify police culture in a myriad of ways, one of which is through the special work-related needs that accompany motherhood. Results from a survey of police officers suggest that gendered perceptions regarding work and family persist indicating that a value shift within police departments has occurred. Findings derived from qualitative responses suggest that women’s entry in policing, along with shifting societal attitudes about work and family, could transform the institution’s “hegemonic masculinity,” an enduring characteristic of many police departments.     

Race and satisfaction with the police in a small city

In a democratic society, public opinion of criminal justice systems is essential for the proper functioning of police departments. Since the 1970s, police organizations were increasingly concerned with their external social relationship. This was particularly true in the era of community policing. This study explored determinants of satisfaction with the police. Data from 235 residents of a small northeastern city in the United States were analyzed. The results indicated that Hispanics had the lowest global satisfaction with the police, while Caucasians had the highest. The results also revealed the importance of separating global satisfaction from specific satisfaction. The study concluded that police departments must work harder at gaining public satisfaction among African Americans and Hispanics and work toward increasing public feelings of safety in order to improve citizen satisfaction with the police.     

The perceived levels of job satisfaction among police officers: A descriptive review

Whereas job satisfaction is a popular research topic among industrial and organizational psychologists, police organizational researchers have all but ignored the area of job satisfaction. Considering its link to many organizationally important factors, such as productivity, morale, and personnel turnover, research on job satisfaction in policing should be important. The identification of how satisfied police officers are with various jobrelated factors can be extremely useful to the police executive. This article examines perceived satisfaction of a purposive sample of 2611 police officers, with respect to 23 job-specific and three global job satisfaction items.     

Motivations for becoming a police officer: Re-assessing officer attitudes and job satisfaction after six years on the street

Few studies had examined the stability of motivations for becoming a police officer over time, especially among minority and female officers. Moreover, research had not explored the links between original motivations and job satisfaction, a likely proxy measure of motivation fulfillment. The current research was a follow-up to Raganella and White (2004) who examined motivations among academy recruits in the New York City Police Department (NYPD). Using the same survey and analysis, this study re-examined motivations among officers from the same NYPD recruit class after six years on the job, and explored both motivation stability and the relationships among motivations and job satisfaction. Results suggested that motivations have remained highly stable over time, regardless of officer race/ethnicity and gender. Findings also suggested that White male officers were most likely to report low job satisfaction, and that there is a link between low satisfaction and unfulfilled motivations. Moreover, dissatisfied officers were much less likely to have expressed strong commitment to the profession through their original motivations, suggesting that low commitment up front may lead to low satisfaction later on. The article concludes with a discussion of implications for police departments, particularly with regard to recruitment and retention practices and efforts to achieve diversity.     

Trauma Resilience Training for Police: Psychophysiological and Performance Effects

The objective of this study is to test the effects of police trauma resilience training on stress and performance during a critical incident police work simulation. Rookie police officers (N = 18) participated in a randomized trial of a 10-week imagery and skills training program versus training as usual. Twelve months later, psychophysiological stress and police work performance were assessed during a live critical incident simulation. Training resulted in significantly less negative mood, less heart rate reactivity, a larger increase in antithrombin, and better police performance compared to controls. Trends for cortisol and self-reported stress also suggested benefits of training. This novel training program is a promising paradigm for improving police well-being, stress resiliency, and optimizing job performance.     

Perceived accountability and public attitudes toward local police

Recent national events have brought the issue of police-community relations into the public eye. Even though a large body of academic research exists on the predictors of public attitude toward police, very little is known about how public perceptions of police accountability influence satisfaction with the police. This study seeks to fill that gap by using ordered logistic regression and multi-year community-level survey data from one Western city (n = 3725) to examine the relationship between satisfaction with police accountability and overall attitudes toward the police. The results indicate that respondent satisfaction with police accountability was a strong, consistent predictor of satisfaction with local police, even after controlling for other important variables, such as race/ethnicity and community context. The findings suggest that public perceptions relating to the control of police officer conduct should be considered when assessing the predictors of attitudes toward the police.     

A Contemporary Snapshot of Policewomen Attitudes

Historically, women have been unwelcome in male-dominated police cultures; despite the gains acquired over many tumultuous years, policewomen continue to face significant obstacles. Men officers often promote the subordination of policewomen, and, because of this, some degree of emotional deterioration among women officers would be understandable. This study aims to evaluate the efficacy of such a hypothesis. Questionnaires were mailed to all municipal police departments in one southern state with 50 or more sworn personnel (n = 21) and produced 1,114 responses from 16 departments. Analysis revealed that women officers' (n = 89) professionalism, job satisfaction, stress, and confidence levels demonstrate a condition of psychological health and do not differ significantly from those of men officers. Essentially, the findings suggest that policewomen are mentally tough and resilient, and hence quite capable of modulating the demands of police careers.     

Job satisfaction: The gender perspective among police officers

Although women constitute more than 50% of the United States’ population, their percentage among police officers is approximately 9%. Despite being relatively new to policing as fully accepted officers, their growth in numbers should be higher. Nevertheless, such growth may be stagnant. The reasons for this phenomenon are still under examination, and any research that can shed light on this quandary is useful. This article examines job satisfaction among police officers and whether there is a difference by gender. The belief is that if job satisfaction among women police officers is low, this could reflect why more women are not entering law enforcement. However, the data analyzed from a purposive sample of 2,309 male and 309 female officers suggest that there is little difference in job satisfaction solely by gender.     

Assessing police treatment in Ecuador: the view of satisfied and disaffected female serious offenders

This empirical study examines procedural justice perceptions among 51 female serious offenders in Ecuador, with the aim of identifying differences between those women who were satisfied with law enforcement and those who were not. The results demonstrate that when women were treated with courtesy and respect, and their rights were acknowledged, they felt satisfied with the police, in a way that they did not give importance to the irregularities they observed while arrested and in custody. On the other hand, the majority of women participants were dissatisfied with the police. Their dissatisfaction with, and lack of trust in, the authorities affected their desire to cooperate with police activities. The study also demonstrates that, although the Ecuadorian police force has made considerable efforts in promoting citizens’ trust during the last 7 years, corruption and illegal police conduct when dealing with offenders are far from uncommon.     

Demographic and workplace characteristics which add to the prediction of stress and job satisfaction within the police workplace

Much research has been conducted into aspects of the police workplace that contribute to stress for individual officers. The current paper examines the influence of worksplace and job characteristics on both officers' stress and their job satisfaction. Police officers recruited from two divisions of an Australian state police service (n=749) were surveyed. Results show that there was a positive relationship between organizational support and job satisfaction and a negative relationship between organizational support and job stress. Difficulty in dealing with organizational change led to lower job satisfaction and higher levels of job stress. Working long hours led to increased job stress but it did not lead to lower job satisfaction. In contrast, shiftwork led to lowered job satisfaction but it did not lead to job stress. Of particular interest in this study was the finding that the job content factor of dealing with dangerous and unpredictable duties was not predictive of job stress but in fact led to higher job satisfaction. Authors' Note: Jeremy Davey, DipT, Bed, Med, is Deputy Director, Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety, School of Psychology and Counselling, Queensland University of Technology, Beams road, Carseldine, Qld 4034, Australia.     

Relationship Between Motivation to Lead,Mental Health Status,and Job Satisfaction of Male and Female Civil Police Constables

The purpose of the study was to examine the differences in perceptions of motivation to lead, mental health, and job satisfaction of male and female police constables. Police constables (N = 203, male = 144, female = 59) were surveyed at four districts (Varanasi, Mirzapur, Allahabad and Lucknow) in the state of Uttar Pradesh, Republic of India. Participants’ responses were obtained on questionnaires which measured demographic characteristics, motivation to lead (Dubrin, 1998), psychological well-being, psychological distress (Heubeck & Neill Psychological Reports, 87:431–440, 2000), and job satisfaction (Dantzker’s Journal of Crime and Justice 16:171–181, 1993). Results of t test analysis indicated that job experience, salary, education, motivation to lead, and psychological well-being were significantly different among the male and female police constables. Motivation to lead was a significantly positive correlate of job satisfaction among male participants only while psychological well-being was significantly, positively correlated with job satisfaction of both male and female participants. Psychological well-being also exercised partial mediator effects on the positive relationship between “motivation to lead” and job satisfaction in male police constables only. However, psychological distress was negatively correlated with job satisfaction of male police constables. The findings have significant implications for increasing job satisfaction in the police department. Findings indicate that the government should concentrate on removing anomalies in the job conditions of the female police constables so as to promote psychological well-being. Simultaneously, the police department should also pay attention to conditions which can increase motivation to lead among its female police constables.     

Job satisfaction: validating Dantzker’s four-factor model using structural equation modeling

The purpose of this study was to examine the validity of the four-factor structure from a job satisfaction instrument. Dantzker’s job satisfaction instrument was designed to capture information on four factors: general administration, extras, job, and equipment. Using data from police officers that are middle management (n?=?136), we performed confirmatory factor analysis via structural equation modeling to validate that the four factors are actually capturing job satisfaction. The results of the study show that the four-factor solution fit the model satisfactorily. All of the factor loadings were large expect for one. The results suggest that the four-factor solution has proper validity to use with middle manager police officers. Post hoc simulation analyses (n?=?1000 replications) show that no bias in the factor loadings or standard errors was present in this analysis, and the study had sufficient statistical power.     

Job Stress,Job Involvement,Job Satisfaction,and Organizational Commitment and Their Associations with Job Burnout Among Indian Police Officers: a Research Note

Job burnout can negatively impact individual officers, the organization that employs the burned out officers, citizens with whom these officers directly interact, and the community more broadly. The vast majority of the empirical research on burnout has been based on Western police officers. The present study extends our understanding of the associations that job stress, job involvement, job satisfaction, affective commitment, and continuance commitment have with the three dimensions of burnout (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and a reduced sense of accomplishment) among Indian police officers. Ordinary least square (OLS) regression analysis was used to examine survey data from 827 police officers in the Sonipat and Rohtak districts of the Indian state of Haryana using a systematic random sample. The findings indicate that job involvement and job satisfaction were associated with lower levels of all three dimensions of burnout. Job stress was associated with emotional and reduced accomplishment burnout. High affective commitment was associated with lower levels of a reduced sense of personal accomplishment, while continuance commitment was associated with higher levels of emotional and depersonalization burnout. The results suggest that job stress, job involvement, job satisfaction, affective commitment, and continuance commitment have effects on burnout among Indian officers, as has been found among Western officers. As such, police scholars and administrators should focus on reducing job stress and continuance commitment and increasing job involvement, job satisfaction, and affective commitment among officers.     

Cynicism and job satisfaction in policing: Muddying the waters

Since Niederhoffer’s (1969) pioneering work, police cynicism has been a staple in research on police officers and police work, various typologies of police officers and definitions of the police subculture or police personality rely to a greater or lesser degree on conceptions of cynicism and suspicion. More recent research has questioned both the validity of measures of cynicism and typologies of police officers. The present study examines the link between cynicism and job satisfaction which is implicit in the literature. Findings indicate not only that these two factors are correlated, but also that relationships reported between cynicism and other factors in policing are mirrored by correlations between those factors and a measure of job satisfaction. The question which arises is, to what degree are correlations reported in the literature spurious, resulting not from cynicism, as was thought, but from a more generic measure of job satisfaction?     

Job satisfaction among frontline police officers in China: the role of demographic,work-related,organizational and social factors

This study was intended to add to information about the underinvestigated policing studies in China. The possible impact of demographic characteristics, work-related variables, and organizational management and social variables on police job satisfaction was investigated. Data were collected through a self-report survey administered to a sample of sworn police officers training in a national police university in China (N?=?393). Results indicated that work-related characteristics associated with variety and stress, and organizational variables associated with professional development and peer cohesion were the most important predictors of job satisfaction in this sample of police officers.     

Predictors of job satisfaction among police officers: Does personality matter?

The aim of this research was to enhance the theoretical foundation of job satisfaction within the field of policing. The data were collected through a self-report survey administered to a sample of sworn police officers (N = 87). The primary research question was whether personality characteristics significantly contribute to perceptions of job satisfaction beyond which could be explained through demographic and job characteristic variables. Although results of hierarchical multiple regressions revealed that overall personality measurement added to the variance accounted for in job satisfaction beyond demographic and job characteristic variables, none of the independent personality scales were significant predictors. Overall, results demonstrated that years of experience and the job characteristic factors of autonomy and feedback were the most important predictors of job satisfaction in this sample of police offers. Implications and future directions are discussed.     

Public satisfaction with the police in domestic violence cases: The importance of arrest,expectations, and involuntary contact

This study examines the importance of victims’ expectations of the police, the decision to arrest, and voluntary contact on satisfaction ratings of the police in domestic violence cases. Based on results from past research and modern police policy, several hypotheses are tested including: fulfilled expectations, offender arrests, and voluntary contacts resulting in positive satisfaction ratings of the police. To investigate these predictions further, the present study utilizes data from a national study on violence against women in the United States. Logistic regression analyses indicate that fulfilled expectations and the arrest decision are important to positive satisfaction ratings. Findings also indicate that involuntary, not voluntary, contact with the police leads to higher satisfaction ratings.