Cumulative exposure to citizens’ trauma and secondary traumatic stress among police officers: the role of specialization in domestic violence prevention

ABSTRACT

Police officers are routinely exposed to a variety of critical incidents and as a result are a population vulnerable to various mental health issues. However, little is known about the impacts of exposure to citizens’ trauma on officers’ mental health and whether officers specializing in domestic violence prevention can better cope with the stress resulting from citizens’ trauma. This study aims to address these research gaps by analyzing the data collected from a sample of 734 Taiwanese police officers through an online survey. Findings indicate that cumulative exposure to citizens’ trauma was positively associated with secondary traumatic stress. Though officers specializing in domestic violence prevention experienced a higher level of secondary traumatic stress than their non-specialist counterparts, their specialization did help them better manage secondary traumatic stress. This study represents the first known attempt to examine the impacts of exposure to citizens’ trauma on police officers’ mental health in an Asian setting; it is also groundbreaking in that it tested whether specialization in domestic violence prevention can serve as a protective factor against exposure to citizens’ trauma.

KEYWORDS:

• Police officers
• mental health
• secondary traumatic stress
• critical incidents
• exposure to citizens’ trauma

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. According to National Police Agency (2021), there were 69,885 sworn officers in Taiwan in 2021 serving a population of 23,375,314 people, and of which 12.55% are female officers. The rate of sworn officer is 2.99 per 1,000 inhabitants. In Taiwan, the crime rate is 15.46 per 100,000 people, and the violent crime rate is 2.58 per 100,000 people. There were 16,029 sexual violence incidents and 185,588 DV-related incidents in 2021.

2. The authors want to acknowledge the inspiration of an ongoing project led by Yang and Irvin-Erikson (2022) who have been collecting data on officers’ mental health and their perception on receiving mental health assessment and services.

3. These six cities represent the six largest cities in Taiwan. Taipei City is the capital and thus served as a reference city in the models.

4. This information was retrieved from Taipei City Counsel at https://tcc10708.tcc.gov.tw/News_Content.aspx?n=C83F91671874CFA2&sms=E141DB16C0A40E09&s=A4BCFCAB1D9F176F.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yi-Fang Lu

Yi-Fang Lu is a Ph.D. candidate at George Mason University and a Graduate Research Assistant at the Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy. Her research interests include officers’ mental wellbeing, policing mental health, place-based criminology, and neighborhood social processes.

Yi-Syuan Jian

Yi-Syuan Jian is a detective working at the Criminal Investigation Bureau in Taiwan. He received his master’s degree from John Jay College of Criminal Justice. His research interests include policing, police attitudes and behavior, police wellbeing and mental health, and evidence-based crime policy.

Chiao-Yu Yang

Chiao-Yu Yang is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Social Welfare at the University at Albany. She is a retired police lieutenant in Taiwan. Her research interests include mental health issues of individuals involved in the criminal justice system, trauma, and addiction recovery.