This paper will examine alcoholism in law enforcement. A review of the scope of the problem, and what is being done to combat the problem will be included.
Law enforcement officers (police officers) face traumatic incidents than can be life-threatening in nature and this results in work stress. Examples of these stressful situations include road traffic accidents, personal violence exposure, incidents of shooting, and natural disasters. Reactions to these stressful conditions include guilt, anxiety, irritability, aggression, apprehension, and a lack of motivation. Physical symptoms such as sleeplessness may also be present. These reactions may affect the service that police officers perform (Rivers, 1993).
In addition to the traumatic and stressful nature of the job, demographics present factors that have also been shown to affect stress levels. For example, reports show that police officers working in the criminal detective branch show the highest levels of Type A behaviors to include aggressiveness, assertiveness, and dominant behaviors. Traffic officers are shown to have the worst subjective reports regarding physical and psychological health. Women tend to experience sexual harassment more than men, which serves as an additional stressor. Women senior police officers tend to use stress-coping techniques more than males. Sergeants report the highest combined stressor scores; these officers participate in front-line police duties as well as front-line supervision/management duties. Studies show that age may be a factor regarding stress but that this variable is convoluted with other factors such as career progression (Kirkcaldy, Brown, & Cooper, 1998).
Police department administration, organization, and size have also been studied as stress factors for police officers. Attitudes differ according to the size of the police department and organization and administration stress is considered one of the most prob...