Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the empirical literature on the resilience of public police officers and private security guards in stressful situations involving threats, violence, accidents or death. This paper studies the definitions of resilience used in these professions, identifies trends in applied research methods and examines the main topics addressed in previous research.
Design/methodology/approach
A scoping review was carried out, with searches in Web of Science and Google Scholar, as well as a secondary manual screening in Dutch academic journals. Based on this review, 33 empirical studies were included in the current paper.
Findings
First, it was revealed that a clear-cut definition of resilience applied to public police and private security guards is currently lacking. Second, predominantly quantitative designs were found to be used in the selected studies. Third, the 33 empirical studies provided insights on four main topics: demographic factors, personal characteristics, interpersonal aspects and resilience training programs. Remarkably, this scoping review did not find any empirical research on the resilience of private security guards.
Originality/value
This study systematically integrates the findings of empirical research on the resilience of security providers to stressful situations. The documentation of research activity, gaps and inconsistencies in the literature offer direction for future research in this relatively new field of study.
PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explore the empirical literature on the resilience of firefighters related to potentially traumatic events (PTE). This paper identifies how resilience is defined in this particular research field, reveals trends in applied research methods and examines the main topics addressed in previous research.Design/methodology/approachWeb of Science, PsycARTICLES and Google Scholar databases were searched, as well as a secondary manual screening of the reference lists of all the selected studies and Dutch academic journals. Based on this review, 54 empirical articles were included in the current paper.FindingsFirstly, this paper revealed that there is no consensus in how to define the concept of resilience in this specific research area. A second observation was that most of the selected studies used a quantitative, cross-sectional research design. Finally, the 54 empirical studies provided insights on six topics: the role of the organization, demographic factors, personal characteristics, coping strategies, social support and the reactions of firefighters in the aftermath of PTE. Comparing the empirical results was challenged by the different interpretations and denominations of the concept of resilience and the myriad of measurement techniques applied across the selected articles.Originality/valueThis literature review discovered some promising avenues for future research regarding resilience of firefighters. Moreover, it demonstrated that studying resilience is particularly interesting as the identification of supporting factors leads to a better understanding of how to enhance the well-being, job satisfaction and job performance of firefighters.
The COVID-19 crisis focused attention on how experts from different scientific fields provided advice to governments through expert committees and task forces. We compared experiences in two federal democracies, Belgium and Australia, by applying a mixed methods approach (literature review, media review, policy documents analysis). This comparative study found that expertise was institutionalized in different ways and its processes and priorities shifted over time. The policy coordination challenges inherent in federalism were largely overcome in Australia through strongly embedded health advisory processes. In Belgium, the advisory process was less stable, with advisory councils being abandoned, replaced, expanded, or downgraded during the course of the crisis.
The Port of Antwerp is the second largest harbor in Europe. Security and policing activities within the port area are frequent, diversifi ed and involve many different actors (federal and local goverments, law enforcement agencies, emergency services etc.). To make security measures work, it is not only important that responsibilities and competences of these actors are unambiguously fi xed but also that there is suffi cient cooperation and coordination among them. In this article we extensively analyze existing policy arrangements within the Port of Antwerp region for four security phenomena, that is, port-related crime, threats, emergency situations and events and incidents. To this end, we developed an innovative assessment scheme to analyze and evaluate multi-actor collaborations. Based on extensive in-depth interviewing and actors' perceptions and points of consideration, in combination with state-ofthe-art insights described in literature, we formulate recommendations on how to improve the present security arrangements situation, within current limitations (short-term), as well as thinking out of the box (long-term).
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