Adopting an Ecological Systems Approach to Aid in the Holistic Understanding of Police Officer Health & Wellness

• In Event: Lightning Talk: New Directions in Health Criminology

Abstract

Research and practitioner emphasis on police officer health and wellness has grown exponentially in the last decade. At present, interventions often focus on improvements at the individual-level or perhaps organizational-level, without accounting for the totality of other factors or interactions between those factors that have an impact the individual officer. Here, I utilize Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory to argue for an expanded, fully holistic understanding of police officer wellness. Implications for theory, research, policy, and interventions will be discussed.

Author

• Kathleen E. Padilla, Texas State University