Book Review: Occupation under siege: Resolving mental health crises in police work
| Author | Vernon Phillips |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0032258X221132056 |
| Published date | 01 December 2022 |
| Date | 01 December 2022 |
Book Review
The Police Journal:
Theory, Practice and Principles
2022, Vol. 95(4) 776–778
© The Author(s) 2022
Article reuse guidelines:
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DOI: 10.1177/0032258X221132056
journals.sagepub.com/home/pjx
Book review
Violanti J (2021) Occupation Under Siege: Resolving Mental Health Crises in Police Work. Illinois USA:
Charles C Thomas Publisher Ltd, pp. 148. ISBN: 978-0-398-09376-1 (paperback), $27.95.
Reviewed by: Vernon Phillips Dr., D.Min.,Department of Christian Leadership and Church
Ministries, Liberty University, Lynchburg, VA, USA
Over the years there has been a growing concern with the overall mental health and
wellness of law enforcement officers. Critical incidents/traumatic events are often a daily
reality for those working in the law enforcement profession and the impacts of those are
significant. With little time to destress between calls for service, the heightened stress
levels continue to climb impacting the overall physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual
health of officers in a variety of ways. Impacts can manifest in ways such as health
complications, depression, anxiety, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), compassion
fatigue, spiritual crisis, and sometimes suicide or suicide attempts. Detailed research
continues to be published on these critical aspects of law enforcement and being made
available to the law enforcement community. However, there is a heavy stigma with
officer mental health, wellness, and suicide within the law enforcement community that
needs to be addressed. The book Occupation Under Siege: Resolving Mental Health
Crises in Police Work by John Violanti provides vital research that can be beneficial to
changing the way law enforcement is viewed by the community, the officer, and law
enforcement organizational leadership. The author, John Violanti, is retired from law
enforcement and currently produces vital research on these areas of concern seeking to
impact the law enforcement community.
Occupation Under Siege is made up of only six chapters, although within those
chapters are countless hours of research provided by professionals that have worked in or
directly with the law enforcement community. The first four chapters deal directly with
officer mental health and wellness covering a wide range of topics. Chapter 1 discusses
the current COVID-19 pandemic and the impact it has had on the law enforcement
community. Providing specific research on the psychological impact that COVID-19 has
had on officers and the increased stress faced by departments is significant (Violanti,
2021).
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