Burnout, job stress and attitudes towards the use of force by Norwegian police officers

Burke, Ronald J.; Mikkelsen, Aslaug

doi:10.1108/13639510510597906

Cited by 47 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 17 publications

(25 reference statements)

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“…More broadly, Fabricatore et al (1978) have shown that certain personality factors, as measured by the Sixteen Personality Factor (16PF) Questionnaire, revealed that "aggressive" and "tough-minded" characteristics were consistent predictors of use-of-force. Burke and Mikkelsen (2005) as well as Phillips and Sobol (2011) subsequently found that cynical officers held more favorable attitudes towards the use-of-force, while officers reporting higher levels of professional efficacy held more favorable attitudes towards the use of social skills to solve problems. We read this body of instructive literature as suggesting that some psychological variables are important in any study of police use-of-force.…”

Section: Explaining Police Use-of-forcementioning

confidence: 94%

The Effect of Police Body-Worn Cameras on Use of Force and Citizens’ Complaints Against the Police: A Randomized Controlled Trial

2014

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Objective: Police use-of-force continues to be a major source of international concern, inviting interest by academics and practitioners alike. Whether justified or unnecessary/excessive, the exercise of power by the police can potentially tarnish their relationship with the community. Police misconduct can translate into complaints against the police, which carry large economic and social costs. The question we try to answer is: do bodyworn-cameras reduce the prevalence of use-of-force and/or citizens' complaints against the police? Methods: We empirically tested the use of body-worn-cameras by measuring the effect of videotaping police-public encounters on incidents of police use-of-force and complaints, in randomized-controlled settings. Over 12 months, we randomly-assigned officers to "experimental-shifts" during which they were equipped with body-worn HD cameras that recorded all contacts with the public and to "control-shifts" without the cameras (n=988). We nominally defined use-of-force, both unnecessary/excessive and reasonable, as a nondesirable response in police-public encounters. We estimate the causal effect of the use of bodyworn-videos on the two outcome variables using both between-group differences using a Poisson regression model as well as before-after estimates using interrupted time-series analyses. Results: We found that the likelihood of force being used in control conditions were roughly twice those in experimental conditions. Similarly, a pre/post analysis of use-of-force and complaints data also support this result: the number of complaints filed against officers dropped from 0.7 complaints per 1,000 contacts to 0.07 per 1,000 contacts. We discuss the findings in terms of theory, research methods, policy and future avenues of research on bodyworn-videos.

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Section: Explaining Police Use-of-forcementioning

confidence: 94%

The Effect of Police Body-Worn Cameras on Use of Force and Citizens’ Complaints Against the Police: A Randomized Controlled Trial

2014

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“…Common stressors among police are shiftwork, working overtime, overabundance of paperwork, effects on human relationships involving coworkers and family, danger associated with enforcing the law, and exposure to people in distress and pain. 50–52 Emotional and physical stressors are associated with elevated cortisol levels. Police officers with high levels of post-traumatic stress disorder had higher mean awakening cortisol levels, 53 and cortisol deregulation was found in male officers with metabolic syndrome.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long Work Hours and Adiposity Among Police Officers in a US Northeast City

Charles

Burchfiel

et al. 2012

Journal of Occupational &Amp; Environmental Medicine

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Objective To investigate the associations between long work hours and adiposity measures in police officers. Methods Participants included 408 officers from the Buffalo Cardio-Metabolic Occupational Police Stress study who were examined between 2004 and 2009. Total work hours were abstracted from payroll records and questionnaires. Analysis of variance and covariance models were used. Results Among male officers who worked the midnight shift, mean values of waist circumference and body mass index increased with longer work hours after adjustment for age, physical activity, energy intake, sleep duration, smoking status, police rank, activities after work (eg, child/family care, sports), and household income. Adiposity measures were not associated with work hours among women on any shift. Conclusion Working longer hours was significantly associated with larger waist circumferences and higher body mass index among male police officers working the midnight shift.

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“…Thus, the participants in this study are fairly representative of the members of the Police Union. Further, we refer to the study on Norwegian police of Mikkelsen et al, of which some are published [35][36][37] , who had identical questions regarding suicidal behaviour, subjective health complaint, and anxiety and depression. However, our study is not representative of the total police population, which makes it difficult to generalize from the study findings to the whole Norwegian police service.…”

Section: Strengths and Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%