It Was Unexpected but I Want to Be an Officer

A career in law enforcement is an honorable and respectable profession. Unfortunately, it is also one of the most stressful occupations in America. If that stress is not relieved, it can lead to a road of hardship, anger and loneliness. Since that stress can also negatively impact an officer’s profession and personal life, it’s important to be able to identify when negative stress is taking over.

  1. The first major form of stress comes from occupational stressors. (Stevens, 2007) Occupational stressors are related to the environment that an officer is exposed to.

    Since officers are exposed to violence, crime, hatred, uncertainty of safety, shift work, and negativity on a daily basis, occupational stressors are a huge factor.

  2. The next major form of stress comes from job strain. (Sevens, 2007) Job strain occurs when an officer experiences high expectations from superiors and the public, but do not gain the proper amount of support or tools needed to achieve those expectations. Therefore, an officer starts to build up stress from not meeting expectations and begins to lose hope of ever meeting those set standards.
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  3. The third major form of stress comes from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD can form from experiencing occupational stressors. Studies have suggested that officers will experience PTSD sometime throughout their career. PTSD for police officers most commonly forms through experiences with weapons or major vehicle accidents. (Schütte, Bär, Weiss, & Heuft, 2012) This disorder is a major form of stress because it commonly goes untreated and greatly effects an officer’s profession and personal life.
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When it comes to the effects of law enforcement stress, there are many areas that are effected and strained. Not only has stress proven to affect an officer’s professional life, but it has also has shown to negatively impact his/her personal life as well. In regards to professional life, a law enforcement officer that is effected by stress, usually starts to experience burnout and fatigue. When experiencing burnout and fatigue, an officer is not able to complete their duties to the best of their abilities and either ends up quitting or not properly preforming job duties. (Aleksandra Basinska, Wiciak, & Maria Dåderman, 2014) In regards to personal life, an officer who is not relieving job related stress, is at risk of taking that stress out on friends or loved ones. That stress can cause an officer to have a short temper, overeat or gain a drinking problem, start to seclude his/her self from public events, and become hard or unable to share feelings. Once those traits begin to take become a regular part of an officer’s life, that officer might find themselves in a divorce situation or without close friends.

A police officer and a police officer’s family, are both affected by job related stress on a daily basis. That stress is formed by many different occupational stressors. If that stress is not relieved, the officer and his/her family are at risk of many negative outcomes. Learning how to reduce stress is not only important, it’s imperative if an officer would like to make their occupation a life career.

Updated: Jun 03, 2022
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It Was Unexpected but I Want to Be an Officer. (2022, Jun 03). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/it-was-unexpected-but-i-want-to-be-an-officer-essay

It Was Unexpected but I Want to Be an Officer essay
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