Search results

The purpose of this paper is to provide a state-of-the-art review on the topic of police stressors and associated health outcomes. Recent empirical research is reviewed in the areas of workplace stress, shift work, traumatic stress, and health. The authors provide a comprehensive table outlining occupational exposures and related health effects in police officers.

A review of recent empirical research on police stress and untoward psychological and physiological health outcomes in police officers.

The results offer a conceptual idea of the empirical associations between stressful workplace exposures and their impact on the mental and physical well-being of officers.

A key limitation observed in prior research is the cross-sectional study design; however, this serves as a motivator for researchers to explore these associations utilizing a longitudinal study design that will help determine causality.

This review provides empirical evidence of both mental and physical outcomes associated with police stress and the processes involved in both. Research findings presented in this paper are based on sound psychological and medical evidence among police officers

This paper aims to investigate the role of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) within the Canadian public procurement, by seeking to identify barriers and supporting factors of MSMEs’ participation and success in public tenders.

The empirical analysis builds on a unique survey run by the Canadian federal government, which addressed firms either participating or not participating in public tenders. Model estimation on the survey data relies on sample selection methodologies, which allow separating determinants of MSMEs’ decision to participate from determinants of success.

Results provide evidence that costs stemming from asset specificity and uncertainty (e.g. costs of bidding, requirements for participation, bundling of contracts and award rules based on minimum price) affect participation in public procurement. Within MSMEs, micro-firms are the most discouraged from participating. However, after controlling for factors affecting participation, micro-firms emerge as having a higher success rate, possibly because of high specialization and joint participation with larger firms.

Because of the cross-sectional nature of the data used for hypotheses testing, endogeneity may arise if ex post variables affect ex ante decisions. This may apply if participation in procurement feeds on success in past tenders.

Findings may inform policies for the inclusion of smaller firms in the public marketplace.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first attempting to disentangle determinants of participation in public tenders from determinants of success. Separating the two aspects helps fine-tune SME-friendly public procurement policies, by identifying actions that effectively facilitate success of MSMEs in public tenders.

Chronic exposure to occupational stress may lead to depressive symptoms in police officers. The association between police stress and depressive symptoms and the potential influences of coping and hardiness were evaluated. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Stress level was assessed in the Buffalo Cardio-Metabolic Occupational Police Stress Study (2004–2009) with the Spielberger Police Stress Survey. The frequency and severity of events at work were used to calculate stress indices for the past year. The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) Scale was used to measure depressive symptoms during the past week. Linear regression was used to evaluate the association between the stress indices and depressive symptom scores. Models were adjusted for age, sex, race, smoking status and alcohol intake, and stratified by median values for coping (passive, active and support seeking) and hardiness (control, commitment and challenge) to assess effect modification.

Among the 388 officers (73.2 percent men), a significant positive association was observed between total stress and the CES-D score (β=1.98 (SE=0.36); p<0.001). Lower CES-D scores were observed for officers who reported lower passive coping (β=0.94 (SE=0.45); p=0.038) and higher active coping (β=1.41 (SE=0.44); p=0.002), compared with their counterparts. Officers higher in hardiness had lower CES-D scores, particularly for commitment (β=0.86 (SE=0.35); p=0.016) and control (β=1.58 (SE=0.34); p<0.001).

Results indicate that high active coping and hardiness modify the effect of work stress in law enforcement, acting to reduce depressive symptoms.

Balancing work and family in dual-earner households can be stressful. Research suggests that increased work-family conflict (WFC) significantly predicts poor psychological health and increased stress in police officers. The purpose of this paper is to assess whether child care stress was associated with anxiety symptoms and if stressful work events and shift work modified this relationship among 163 Buffalo, NY police officers.

Participants indicated child care stress by reporting how much stress they felt (0 – none to 10 – high) when making child care/daily living arrangements. Shiftwork was assessed from pay-roll data (1994 to date of exam) and by asking, “Do you work opposite shift from your spouse/partner to care for your children?” to assess partner’s shift. The Beck Anxiety Scale and Spielberger Police Stress Survey were used to assess anxiety and work stress, respectively. Effect modification was assessed by stratifying on police stress scores using their median values, and on partner’s shift. All models were adjusted for age, alcohol intake, sex and smoking status.

Results suggest that child care stress was positively associated with anxiety symptoms and that this relationship was moderated by high (>median) work stress factors and afternoon/midnight shift-work, but not having a partner who works opposite shift. These results indicate that child care stress is associated with anxiety symptoms and that this relationship may be modified by work factors.

A number of limitations should be considered while interpreting the results. This study is cross-sectional, which prevents causal inferences; therefore, the temporal pattern between exposure and outcome cannot be determined. The independent, dependent and moderating variables are all self-report measures, which may introduce recall bias. Lastly, generalizability is limited to police departments of similar size and geographic area.

Police experience high stress as part of their jobs, these results indicate that similar to other professions, WFC can also affect police officers, and is associated with higher levels of anxiety.

Few research studies have evaluated the affects of family issues in police. Specifically, the relationship between child care stress and anxiety, and how this relationship may be modified by high work stress.

The purpose of the present study is to examine associations between post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and salivary cortisol parameters.

PTSD symptoms and cortisol responses were measured in a random sample of 100 police officers. The impact of event scale (IES) categorized into subclinical, mild, moderate and severe levels was employed to measure PTSD symptoms. Cortisol was analyzed from saliva samples over a period of three days and included an awakening response, high protein lunch challenge, whole day (diurnal), and a dexamethasone suppression test (DST).

Officers in moderate and severe PTSD symptom categories had higher mean awakening cortisol values. A significant sample‐time by PTSD interaction (p=0.008) was found for awakening cortisol responses. Officers in the severe PTSD symptom category showed a blunted response to the cortisol protein meal challenge compared to those in lower PTSD categories. Diurnal cortisol levels suggested an increasing trend across subclinical to severe PTSD categories respectively (p=0.15 test for trend). DST ratios were lower in moderate and severe PTSD symptom categories (6.86 and 8.03 respectively) than in the subclinical and mild categories (9.32 and 10.43 respectively).

The sample was not representative of all police in the USA. These results suggest that associations between psychological trauma symptoms and dysregulation of cortisol patterns may exist and could possibly affect future health outcomes in police officers.

Exposure to trauma and disaster events emphasizes the need to further investigate the health impact of PTSD on police personnel as well as other first responder groups.

This article will not only be of interest to those in the police service but to the general public. The present study may serve to provide a guide for larger police population investigations on PTSD and physiological impact.

Working on the night shift is a potential source of occupational stress and has been associated with sleep disorders. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the association between shift work and sleep problems among police officers from Buffalo, New York.

Randomly selected officers (n=111) responded to questions on sleep quality and quantity. Shift work data were obtained from daily payroll records from 1994 to the exam date (1999‐2000). Prevalence ratios (PR) were obtained using Poisson regression models that examined associations of shift work with sleep quality and quantity.

Among police officers, night shift work was significantly and independently associated with snoring and decreased sleep duration.

Although the sleep questions were similar to those used in validated sleep questionnaires, a major strength of this study was the availability of daily work history data on all officers for up to five years prior to the current examination.

Casino gambling in the United States has increased significantly in the last 30 years, going from just 2 states (Nevada and New Jersey) in 1988 to 41 states with over 980 casinos. This rapid growth of casino gambling has resulted in additional social costs, including workplace embezzlements committed by problem gamblers. Embezzlements contribute to greater fraud risk for organizations in casino regions and are expected to rise as casinos multiply and increasingly cater to convenience gamblers. The purpose of this chapter is to highlight the proximity of casinos as a fraud risk factor for embezzlement. The authors recommend that internal and external auditors for companies located in casino areas assess this fraud risk and where appropriate, perform audit procedures to address this risk. There is also an opportunity for external auditors to assist those companies located in casino regions (that may lack internal auditors) in establishing fraud prevention programs.

Some women who left situations of exploitation falling under the umbrella term of modern slavery in the United Kingdom (UK) are mothers whom I calls survivor mothers in this chapter. Some are determined agents driven to provide better lives for their children. In their journeys after exploitation, they may draw resilience from various resources such as children and survivor communities. The findings in this chapter are based on data collected as part of a broader research project focussing on women’s journeys after exiting exploitation in the UK. Through decolonial feminist methods using a narrative analysis of semi-structured interviews with survivor mothers, I have examined children and survivor communities as resources of resilience in tandem with the structural violence that harms survivor mothers’ capabilities of remodelling life after exploitation. At the same time, I recognise that vulnerability caused by structural violence can drive resistance. By way of resistance, some survivor mothers assert agency. Additionally, I criticise the reductive use of resilience as it often ignores complex structural factors. I conclude that it is impossible to employ resilience uncritically in life after exploitation.