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ABSTRACT
Policing is frequently identified as one of the most stressful professions and police officers are often exposed to dangerous situations and traumatic experiences on the job. Exposure to these traumatic experiences, also referred to as critical incidents, may negatively influence the psychological and physiological wellbeing of officers. In extreme cases, these negative reactions can result in deviant and criminal behavior fitting within the theoretical conceptions of General Strain Theory (GST). Few studies have explored the role of prior trauma experiences on officers’ negative stress and behavioral outcomes. This research examines the influence of child abuse and inter-parental violence on officer psychological-physiological stress responses and officer-on-officer aggression. Using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and data from the Police Stress and Domestic Violence in Police Families in Baltimore, Maryland, the results indicate that emotional responses to critical incidents and prior childhood exposure to abuse and violence influence negative stress responses and use of violence by officers.
Disclosure Statement
Dr. Kurtz has received research grants from the International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards & Training (IADLEST) sub-award from NE Law Enforcement Training Center for the Dept. of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance, and funding from the Nebraska Department of Correction to evaluate the state’s Life Skills Vocation Reentry Program via a sub-award from University of Nebraska Omaha. Dr. Kurtz has received speaker honorariums from Kansas Department of Children and Families, The U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, Association of Community Mental Health Centers, The Smoky Hill Association of Social Workers, and from the Kansas Governor’s Conference on Juvenile Justice. Vivian Hughes has no real or perceived conflicts of interest or direct funding.
Data availability statement
Data for this project is available for public use from Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research and is frequently used for secondary data analysis. Research subjects are not identifiable in the data set and informed consent was completed as part of the original research protocol. Please refer to the following source for more detail on data collection and participant informed consent and protection. Gershon, Robyn. Police Stress and Domestic Violence in Police Families in Baltimore, Maryland, 1997–1999. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2000-08-28. https://doi.10.3886/ICPSR02976.v1
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Don L. Kurtz
Don L. Kurtz is a Professor in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work at Kansas State University. His research interests include police stress, youth violence, police storytelling and narrative development. He is published in Crime and Delinquency, Deviant Behavior, Feminist Criminology, Criminal Justice Review, Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, Critical Criminology, Police Practice and Research, Victims and Offender and Women and Criminal Justice among others. Prior to pursuing an academic career, Dr. Kurtz was employed as a social worker in the juvenile justice system.
Vivian Hughes
Vivian Hughes is a doctoral graduate student in the College of Criminology and Criminal Justice of Florida State University. She holds a Master of Arts in Sociology from Kansas State University and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Washington-Tacoma. She has worked on Department of Defense funded research projects focusing on family violence and has published on the topic of violence in Contemporary Family Therapy Journal and Partner Abuse Journal. Her areas of interest include the victim-offender overlap, family violence, victimization, and corrections.