Police stress: the role of occupational culture and officer characteristics

PurposeThe purpose of the current study was to augment the police culture and stress literature by empirically examining the impact of features of the internal and external work environment, as well as officer characteristics, on police officer stress.Design/methodology/approachThe current empirical inquiry utilized survey data collected from street-level officers in a mid-sized urban police department in a southern region of the United States (n = 349).FindingsThis study revealed that perceived danger, suspicion of citizens and cynicism toward the public increased police occupational stress, while support from supervisors mitigated it. In addition, Black and Latinx officers reported significantly less stress than their White counterparts.Research limitations/implicationsWhile this study demonstrates that patrol officers' perceptions of the external and internal work environments (and race/ethnicity) matter in terms of occupational stress, it is not without limitations. One limitation related to the generalizability of the findings, as results are gleaned from a single large agency serving a metropolitan jurisdiction in the Southeast. Second, this study focused on cultural attitudes and stress, although exact connections to behaviors are more speculative. Finally, the survey took place prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the killing of George Floyd (and others), which radically shook police–community relationships nationwide.Practical implicationsPolice administrators should be cognizant of the importance that views of them have for patrol officer stress levels. Moreover, police trainers and supervisors concerned with occupational stress of their subordinates should work toward altering assignments and socialization patterns so that officers are exposed to a variety of patrol areas, in avoiding prolonged assignments of high social distress.Originality/valueThe study augmented the police culture and stress literature by empirically uncovering the individual-level sources of patrol officers' job-related stress. This study builds off of Paoline and Gau's (2018) research using data collected some 15 years ago by examining a more contemporary, post–Ferguson, context.

Policemen, COVID-19, and police culture: navigating the pandemic with colleagues, the public, and family

Scholars have long identified the culture of policing as resisting change and impeding reform (Campeau, 2019. Institutional myths and generational boundaries: cultural inertia in the police organisation. Policing and society, 29 (1), 69–84. doi:10.1080/10439463.2017.1371718;Chan, 1996. Changing police culture. British journal of criminology, 36 (1), 109–134. doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.bjc.a014061), and the advent of COVID-19 has been optimal for studying this culture. Early research on the pandemic identified some temporary cultural shifts within policing or at least the potential for these (e.g. Alcadipani, 2020. Pandemic and macho organizations: wake-up call or business as usual? Gender, work and organization, 27 (5), 734–746). Our research analyzes data from 18 qualitative interviews with Canadian police officers who identified as men about their experiences at work and home, approximately five months into the pandemic. Drawing on Campeau's (2015. "Police culture” at work: making sense of police oversight. British journal of criminology, 55, 669–687. doi:10.1093/bjc/azu093) theorising of police culture as a resource, we illustrate how officers drew on the macho police culture ‘toolkit' differently depending on the social context. With colleagues, they normalised risks posed by the pandemic;when interacting with the public, they highlighted the risks around policing during the pandemic;and with family, officers both downplayed risks at work to reassure their children of their safety and highlighted pandemic-related risks at home with their families. Our research points to the importance of recognising that culture is not homogenous;rather it is taken up differently depending on the organisation, the social context, and the moment in time. © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Police stress: the role of occupational culture and officer characteristics

Purpose The purpose of the current study was to augment the police culture and stress literature by empirically examining the impact of features of the internal and external work environment, as well as officer characteristics, on police officer stress. Design/methodology/approach The current empirical inquiry utilized survey data collected from street-level officers in a mid-sized urban police department in a southern region of the United States (n = 349). Findings This study revealed that perceived danger, suspicion of citizens and cynicism toward the public increased police occupational stress, while support from supervisors mitigated it. In addition, Black and Latinx officers reported significantly less stress than their White counterparts. Research limitations/implications While this study demonstrates that patrol officers' perceptions of the external and internal work environments (and race/ethnicity) matter in terms of occupational stress, it is not without limitations. One limitation related to the generalizability of the findings, as results are gleaned from a single large agency serving a metropolitan jurisdiction in the Southeast. Second, this study focused on cultural attitudes and stress, although exact connections to behaviors are more speculative. Finally, the survey took place prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the killing of George Floyd (and others), which radically shook police-community relationships nationwide. Practical implications Police administrators should be cognizant of the importance that views of them have for patrol officer stress levels. Moreover, police trainers and supervisors concerned with occupational stress of their subordinates should work toward altering assignments and socialization patterns so that officers are exposed to a variety of patrol areas, in avoiding prolonged assignments of high social distress. Originality/value The study augmented the police culture and stress literature by empirically uncovering the individual-level sources of patrol officers' job-related stress. This study builds off of Paoline and Gau's (2018) research using data collected some 15 years ago by examining a more contemporary, post-Ferguson, context.

Notes on law and police occupational culture in Brazil's Military Polices: An explorative study

This research discusses the relations between law and police culture in the context of Brazil's Military Polices, aiming to contribute both to discussions about these corporations' non-compliance with legal standards and to socio-legal knowledge on policing. Pierre Bourdieu's conceptualization of the juridical field, along with Erving Goffman's theory of interaction rituals, are used to design a qualitative exploratory study that combines semi-structured interviews with lower-rank officers and observation of criminal trials in which these participated as witnesses. Due to COVID-19, methods were adapted to online platforms. The analysis suggests that Brazil's juridical field structurally conditions the development of its police culture, although not in the ways intended. Additionally, law appears as an important symbolic figure in the construction of the officers' occupational selves, and it is argued that contact with legal institutions engenders particular strategies of self-presentation, aimed at safeguarding both appearances and internal ideas about the profession.