A Qualitative Exploration of Police Stress in a Criminal Investigations Section

• In Event: Research on Stress and Job Satisfaction among Police Officers

Abstract

Traditional literature on stress in policing focuses on the patrol officer and generalizes these findings to other sections within the department. Understanding that different sections of any given department may experience and manage stress in various ways, the present study involved qualitative interviews with 21 officers and detectives from financial, property, domestic violence, persons, and child crimes in the Criminal Investigations Section of a mid-sized Southwestern police department. Evidence suggests that organizational and occupational sources of stress differ both from the rest of the department, as well as between each assignment within the Section.

Author

• Kathleen E. Padilla, Arizona State University