ABSTRACT
Sources and consequences of stress among police personnel have been well documented. However, despite the attention given to stress and its related outcomes and the efforts made to mitigate stress in policing, there has been little change in the stress experience of police officers and ill-health has reportedly worsened (Collins & Gibbs, 2003). This may suggest that stress in policing is not being adequately addressed or the target of intervention and stress management programmes may be misguided. Perusal of the literature on police stress and its correlates presents a substantial amount of information that is at times inconclusive and contradictory and can prove somewhat challenging to navigate through. This paper aims to organise some of the salient areas of enquiry in the police literature. Specifically, it addresses the following three questions: (1) is police work inherently stressful relative to other occupations? (2) What are the sources of police stress? and (3) what is the evidence linking police stress to physical, psychological, and behavioural consequences. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research in the context of the current police stress literature.
