Identify the Primary Points of Police Stress

Identify the primary points of police stress

The primary points of stress on a police officer consist: PTSD, suicide, high blood pressure, and insomnia. Officers over the age of forty had higher coronary than younger officers. Female officers differ from male officers in stress. Seventy two percent of females to forty three percent male officers have a higher cholesterol level (University at Buffalo, 2008). Police officers as a whole have higher pulse rates and diastolic blood pressure, and have more suicidal thoughts than the general population. Females were higher on suicidal rates also. The general population was a lower percentage than both men and women on the force. Stress levels differ from what shift an officer worked; day shift for women were higher in depression and suicide thoughts while men working the afternoon night shift suffered from depression and PTSD(University at Buffalo, 2008). Police officer working the midnight shift had higher levels of stress because if they were out on a call by themselves and no back up they were in fear of their life even more. They even had high suicide rates because they were not in a more sociable environment than the day shift. The women officers are said to have a higher stress level because they have their stressful dangerous job, families to maintain, and if they have children they have to tend to the kids with helping with homework, getting them off to school making sure dinner is ready for them. The female officers also feel a little out of place in the work environment always having to compete with the male officers.

Explain how Forensic Psychologist can contribute to outcome

Forensic psychologist contributes to police officers by doing personality test. If a police officer's partner gets shot and killed in the line of duty, the police officer that witnessed the incident may become traumatized and should be assigned to the department's psychologist for evaluation. In addition, the police officer should have leave of absent with pay. Once the officer is brought back to the job, he or she should continue seeing a psychologist to rehabilitated and placed on desk work for about three to six months. Sometimes police officers may experience flashbacks about the incidents; it becomes difficult to function. Another example, a forensic psychologist must do a number of tests on that officer before releasing them back to work. Many times, officers do not fully recover and have difficulty coping with their jobs.

Identify the type of psychological instrument that can be used to resolve the problems identified in the article.

Given the escalation of crime today; police officers exhibited stress in their homes, on the job and in the community. To help to deescalate or to prevent stresses, psychological behavioral instruments used to examine pre and post stress disorders.