ABSTRACT

This chapter aims to provide an illustrative overview of the contemporary science on the causes and consequences of police stress, with a view to providing an evidence-based platform for action on tackling this problem. The police stress literature has examined a wide range of individual and organizational health consequences. In order to provide a concise snapshot of the consequences of organizational stressor exposure in policing, the chapter addresses two key indices of individual health that have been the focus of a considerable amount of contemporary police stress research: psychological distress and burnout. The concept of psychological distress is widely used in occupational health research. Though not an illness per se, it is typified by common symptoms of anxiety and depression, irritability, declining intellectual capacity, and tiredness. Organizational psychosocial hazard exposure may have implications for psychological distress, with several studies reporting cross-sectional associations.