Alcoholism in Law Enforcement

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 f

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er age was related to less stress, marital status influences stress, particularly for patrol officers, with marriage related to increased stress related to human suffering and the criminal justice system. Patrol assignment was related to increased stress. This stress can result in specific life-style behaviors that include excessive drinking. Richmond, Wodak, Kehoe, and Heather (1998) conducted a study of the prevalence of five particular life-style behaviors in a police population. Life-style behaviors that are unhealthy have been shown to result in increased morbidity and mortality. Previous studies of work place conditions and life-style factors have shown that police have a prevalence of excessive alcohol consumption and other negative behaviors. Richmond et al. (1998) used a cross-sectional survey with a self-report questionnaire to obtain data from police officers. The life-style behaviors studied included: alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking, exercise, weight, and stress symptoms. Most of the police officers participated in the study (852; 89%). Findings showed that 48% of the males and 40% of the females reported that they consumed alcohol excessively, with continuous hazardous or harmful consumption and bin
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Drinking Detective, Kehoe Heather, Scope Law, Brooks Piquero, Brown Cooper, Wodak Uebel-Yan, Service Sydney, alcohol consumption, Law Enforcement, police officers, life-style behaviors, Employee Counseling, Managerial Psychology, stress levels, law enforcement, police departments, criminal justice system, piquero 1998, brooks piquero, criminal justice, hazardous harmful, brooks piquero 1998, excessive alcohol consumption, richmond et al, 48% males 40%,
Approximate Word count = 1339
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)

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