Police stress: A conceptual overview

Over the past decade, a sizeable body of literature has developed that examines police stress from a variety of perspectives. The vast majority of the literature is anecdotal in nature and that which is based on research is often inconsistent. As used in the literature, the term stress has widely differing meanings and its measurement has ranged from the artful to the sublime. But of greater importance than the measurement issue is the necessary complexity of any model that attempts to deal with the interrelationships thought to exist between stress and other factors.The variety and complexity of individual differences and the interplay between environmental conditions and the person's unique perception of both objective and subjective situations obscures any simple relationships.The purpose of this note is to examine the nature of stress, its sources and consequences among police, and to identify gaps in the conceptual model within which police stress is normally viewed.