A Conceptual Model and Implications for Coping with Stressful Events in Police Work

Abstract

Experiencing acute stress is inherent in police work. The inability to cope effectively with stressful events can result in undesirable psychological and somatic outcomes, leading to chronic stress, burnout, and quitting the profession. Surprisingly, however, understanding the coping process in police stress and identifying effective coping strategies in response to stressful events has received only scant attention in the research literature. The purposes of this article are (a) to review the coping process in police stress, (b) to identify adaptive and maladaptive coping styles in police work, and (c) to suggest coping strategies that reflect the coping model to reduce both chronic and acute forms of stress and to improve job satisfaction and performance among police officers. The model consists of officers' detection of stressful events or stimuli, their cognitive appraisal of the events or stimuli, and their application of approach- or avoidance-coping dimensions, and cognitive- and behavioral-coping subdimensions.