Police Stress in Australia: A Current Perspective
| Author | Marilyn J Davidson,Arthur Veno |
| Published date | 01 September 1979 |
| Date | 01 September 1979 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/000486587901200305 |
AUST & NZ
JOURNAL
OF
CRIMIN()L()CY
(September
1979) 12 (153-161)
POUCE
STRESS
IN
AUSTRALIA:
ACURRENT PERSPECTIVE
Marilyn JDavidson" and Arthur
Veno]
153
Recent research
by
Margolis, Kroes
and
Quinn
(1974)
has strongly suggested
that job stress contributes to
poor
physical health.
They
indicate that
psychological stress is highly related to such health problems as coronary heart
disease, gastrointestinal malfunction, dermatological problems, severe nervous
conditions and a host of other physical
and
mental disorders. As well, an earlier
study by
Cobb
and
Rose
(1973)
has demonstrated that workers in high stress
occupations are more prone to these kinds of mental
and
physical disorders.
These findings relating occupational stress
and
impaired psychological and
physical functioning are of particular importance when considering police, as
numerous studies indicate that the job of the police is an extremely stressful
occupation (eg, Nelson and Smith, 1970; Heimans, 1975).
In
fact,
at
least one
study has suggested that the police are in an uniquely high stress occupation
(Kroes, Margolis &Hurrell, 1974).
What are the implications of the police being an extremely high stress
occupation? Clearly, there will be a high cost on the members of the force as the
studies cited above suggest. But also, it
can
be
easily seen that the community at
large will suffer from the police being under. a great deal of stress.
For
example,
Hillgren
(1976)
points out that some of the observed consequences of emotional
and psychological stress in aUnited States sample resulted in impaired physical
performance, inappropriate emotional reactions to situations
and
increasing
perception by police of poor relations with community members. Thus, stress
impairs job performance
and
the effects of this impaired job performance is
poor response to community needs.
Other
studies have suggested that the stress
on the police affects the community in a negative fashion
and
that the result of
this negative effect is for the police to have more stress
put
upon
them (eg,
Chappell and Meyer, 1975;Chappell
and
Wilson, 1972).
Considering the implications of job stress on both the individual police
member and the community, there is a paucity of reliable, empirical data which
detail the nature
and
incidence of psychosocial
and
physiological stress
indicators regarding police. There are, sadly, even less data detailing
psychosocial/physiological stress indicators in Australian police cohorts. These
oBA (Hons) Psych,
Cert
Ed,
University of London. Currently enrolled in Master of Applied
Psychology
Programme,
University of Queensland.
tPh D Social Psychology, University of California, San Francisco.
Director
of Community
Psychology
Programme,
Department
of Psychology, University of Queensland.
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