OCCUPATIONAL STRESS AMONG POLICE CONSTABLES

Occupation stress is a renowned problem in police personals. Police department is the

occupation that has been identified as high level of stress. Responsibilities of police
personals are varied and may differ from one another. Usual duties of police constables relate
to keeping the law enforcement, peace keeping, people protection, protection of properties,
and finally investigating and interrogating of crimes. They have to respond to unexpected
situations that may arise when they are on duty. More over police personals have to maintain
orders and consequent reporting to the higher officials. Because of work stress police officers
are experiencing interpersonal relationship problems. The rates of suicidal among the police
personal keep on increasing every year. Using drugs, smoking and taking alcohol is also
another problem for police personals. They are more studies available in the field, and
frequency of stress, coping are well documented. Still the causes of occupational stressors are
unclear and police department find difficulties in solving the problem. To analyse this
problem, the present study focuses on the review of literature collected from the studies done
in the years 2010 to 2016.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Jeong L. Kim a, William Wells, James J. Vardalis, Sharon K. Johnson, & Hyungjin Lim
(2016)1: Using survey data from 512 sworn police officers in the Korean National Police
Agency, this study explores the impact of five job characteristics, organizational
environment, and external environment on stress experienced by male and female police
officers in South Korea. Data analyses show that female officers experience statistically
significant elevated degrees of somatization and anxiety. The level of organizational
bureaucracy has statistically significant impact on both male and female officer's
somatisation and anxiety, and male officer's depression. In addition, the level of community
relationships has statistically significant impact on somatization, anxiety, and depression for
male officers, but only on anxiety and depression for female officers. The effects of task
identity and autonomy on different measures of work-related stresses differ between the two
gender groups. Findings of the current study support previous police stress literature in
general. Implications, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.

1
Jeong L. Kim a, William Wells, James J. Vardalis, Sharon K. Johnson, & Hyungjin Lim (2016), “Gender
difference in occupational stress: A study of the South Korean National Police Agency” International Journal
of Law, Crime and Justice 44 (2016) 163-182.
R.K. Mashego and Dr. P.Q. Radebe (2015)2: Occupational stress among police officers is
an important area of research because of the realisation that less stressed police officers are
more effective and they tend to stay longer with the employing department. The spinoffs of
longer stay with the safety and security department are, inter alia, less training costs on
replacement staff, utilisation of more experienced staff in critical safety and security areas,
and organisational commitment. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data
from 276 police officers. A stratified random sampling technique was utilised to draw units
of analysis for the study. A response rate of 75% was obtained. Responses were analysed
using frequency analysis. The results confirmed that police officers in the Sebokeng Cluster
experienced role conflict. The findings from the study were also that police officers did not
experience role overload and role ambiguity.

Shradha Sadanand Parsekar, Mannat Mohanjeet Singh, T. V. Bhumika (2015) 3: The

present study intended to find out the prevalence of psychological distress among police
constable, assess stressors, and the factors influencing it. A cross-sectional study was
conducted among police constables in police stations of Udupi taluk. A total of 76 constables
participated in the study, who was taken up from seven randomly selected police stations.
General health questionnaire and organizational and operational police stress questionnaire
were used to assess psychological distress and stressors, respectively. Data were analyzed
using SPSS version 15. Results were tabulated using frequency distribution and proportions
for dichotomous variables and mean with a standard deviation for continuous variables.
Chi-square test was performed to find the association between psychological distress and
other variables. One-fourth (95% confidence interval: 0.153, 0.347) of the participants
reported as having high levels of psychological distress. Years of service and 28 stressful
activities were significantly associated with psychological distress. Psychological distress
among the police constables is of concern; hence some modifications such as sharing work,
fixed duty hours, etc., should be done in the police department in order to avoid stress and its
adverse effects. Stress management training can be given at regular intervals to improve
competitiveness and enhance coping skills.

2
R.K. Mashego and Dr. P.Q. Radebe (2015) “An Assessment of the Level of Occupational Stress among
Police Officers in the Sebokeng Cluster” in Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, MCSER Publishing,
Rome-Italy ,Vol 6 No 1 S1.
3
Shradha Sadanand Parsekar, Mannat Mohanjeet Singh, T. V. Bhumika (2015) “Occupation- related
psychological distress among police constables of Udupi taluk, Karnataka: A cross - sectional study” in Indian
Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine - August 2015 - Volume 19 - Issue 2 pg. 80-83.
Satish More, Amol Gaikwad & Pallavi Shelke (2015)4: Stress manifests itself in different
ways and may limit the performance of police personnel. It manifests as fatigue, chronic
headaches, irritability etc. A cross sectional study was conducted to identify various
psychometric disorders among police personnel by using stratified random sampling with
proportional allocation. Data was collected with the help of pretested and semi-structured
proforma by personal interview. Data was analyzed using statistical techniques like
percentage, proportion. Among all 240 participants 85.42% were male and 14.58% female
majority of them were from the age group of 30 – 49 years, study reveals that Disturbed sleep
(75.83%), Acidity (42.08%), Anxiety (37.91%), Headache (33.75%), Backache (28.90%) and
Depression (28.30%) were the common psychosomatic diseases among the participants.
Study also reveals the significant association of Acidity and hypertension in class II cadre of
police personnel.

Claudia C. Ma, Michael E. Andrew, Desta Fekedulegn, Ja K. Gu1, Tara A. Hartley,

Luenda E. Charles, John M. Violanti, Cecil M. Burchfiel (2015) 5: The number of stressful
events that occurred in the previous month and year was obtained using the Spielberger
Police Stress Survey among 365 police officers aged 27-66 years. Work hours were derived
from daily payroll records. A dominant shift (day, afternoon, or night) was defined for each
participant as the shift with the largest percentage of total time a participant worked (starting
time from 4:00 AM to 11:59 AM, from 12 PM to 7:59 PM, and from 8:00 PM to 3:59 AM
for day, afternoon, and night shift, respectively) in the previous month or year. Analysis of
variance and covariance were used to examine the number of total and subscale
(administrative/professional pressure, physical/psychological danger, or organizational
support) stressful events across the shift. During the previous month and year, officers
working the afternoon and night shifts reported more stressful events than day shift officers
for total stress, administrative/professional pressure, and physical/psychological danger (p <
0.05). These differences were independent of age, sex, race/ethnicity, and police rank. The
frequency of these stressful events did not differ significantly between officers working the
afternoon and night shifts. None day shift workers may be exposed to more stressful events in

4
Satish More, Amol Gaikwad & Pallavi Shelke (2015), “Prevalence of psychosomatic diseases among police
personnel of Navi Mumbai”. MedPulse – International Medical Journal, ISSN: 2348-2516, EISSN: 2348-1897,
Volume 2, Issue 2, February 2015 pp 72-74.
5
Claudia C. Ma, Michael E. Andrew, Desta Fekedulegn, Ja K. Gu1, Tara A. Hartley, Luenda E. Charles, John
M. Violanti, Cecil M. Burchfiel (2015), “Shift Work and Occupational Stress in Police Officers” Safety and
Health at Work 6 (2015) 25-29.
this cohort. Interventions to reduce or manage police stress that are tailored by shift may be
considered.

Lu Lu, Li Liu, Guoyuan Sui and Lie Wang (2015) 6: Police officers’ job satisfaction is an
important issue for police force management, but insufficient research exists on the topic,
especially in China. This study aimed to examine the associations of job stress and
organizational identification with job satisfaction among Chinese police officers, and
particularly the mediating role of psychological capital (PsyCap). A cross-sectional study was
conducted in Liaoning Province of China during the period of September–October 2014. A
set of self-administered questionnaires was distributed to 2514 police officers, and complete
responses were obtained from 2226 participants. The associations among variables in relation
to job satisfaction were validated by structural equation modelling. Job stress was negatively
associated with job satisfaction, while organizational identification and PsyCap were
positively associated with job satisfaction among Chinese police officers. PsyCap mediated
the associations of job stress and organizational identification with job satisfaction.
Interventions to improve Chinese police officers’ job satisfaction should be developed in the
future, especially the enhancement of PsyCap.

Hyungjin Lim, Jeong L. Kim (2015) 7: To investigate correlations between police officers’
perceptions of organizational job environment assessed by the Job Diagnostic Survey (JDS)
along with the Bureaucracy Level Assessment and perceptions of distress symptoms
measured by Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI). Survey data collected between November 2013
and January 2014 from the Korea National Police Agency including 512 male and female
police officers are used in the multivariate analysis. Female officers showed higher levels of
the distress symptom in obsessive-compulsive and interpersonal sensitivity; officers working
in suburban/rural areas displayed higher levels of interpersonal sensitivity and anxiety than
counterparts in urban areas; not married officers showed higher level of hostility than married
officers; officers in supervisory positions reported higher levels of obsessive-compulsive,
interpersonal sensitivity, anxiety, and hostility; finally, officers having longer service years
demonstrated a lower level of hostility than officers having shorter service years. Level of
education did not show statistically significant influence on police occupational stress. While
6
Lu Lu, Li Liu, Guoyuan Sui and Lie Wang (2015), “The Associations of Job Stress and Organizational
Identification with Job Satisfaction among Chinese Police Officers: The Mediating Role of Psychological
Capital” International Journal of Environmental Research Public Health 2015, 12, 15088–15099;
doi:10.3390/ijerph121214973 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph.
7
Hyungjin Lim, Jeong L. Kim (2015). “Organizational Stressors Associated with Six Aspects of Police
Officer Stress in South Korea”. Health Sci J. 2015, 10:1-16.
controlling demographic characteristics and police-community relationships, individual
perceptions of bureaucracy level have a more significant impact than police job
characteristics on individual perceptions of distress symptoms. The bureaucratic environment
should be changed to allow more discretion and responsibility for field officers, as well as
reallocating budget for inadequate staff and poor working conditions. Work redesign which
allows field officers to carry out identifiable task with various skills and allows field officers
to have more autonomy on their jobs should be followed. In addition, gender discrimination
should be eliminated.

Kuo, S. (2015)8: As job stress has been noted consistently as one of the major factors
negatively affecting employees’ job satisfaction among various workplace groups, it may be
considered as a hygiene factor affecting job satisfaction among police officers. Therefore, we
formulate a first hypothesis: H1 There is a negative association between job stress and job
satisfaction among police officers.

Joyce Atieno Oweke, James Muola & Owen Ngumi (2014)9: Stress is a major global
health challenge affecting the well-being of service providers especially those working in the
human service sectors like; police officers, teachers, health care providers and media
specialists. This study was prompted by emerging information from studies that, stress is a
silent killer that affects the health of service providers leading to; mental, physical, and
emotional disorders. The study adopted the Causal Comparative ex-post facto research
design. The target population was 451 police constables and 12 Officers Commanding
Stations in the four police divisions in Kisumu County. Stratified random sampling technique
was used to sample 105 police constables and 4 Officers Commanding Station (OCS). The
data was collected using a Police Constable Questionnaire and an Officer Commanding
Station Interview Schedule. The instruments were validated by experts while reliability was
estimated by use of Cronbach Alpha method for internal consistency. The questionnaire
yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.88. Quantitative and qualitative data were obtained. Data
was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences for Windows (Version 20).
Descriptive statistics and inferential statistical (Chi-Square) were used in data analysis. The
key findings of the study were that: police constables in Kisumu County were experiencing

8
Kuo, S. “Occupational stress, job satisfaction, and affective commitment to policing among Taiwanese
police Officers”. Police Quart. 2015, 18, 27–54.
9
Joyce Atieno Oweke, James Muola & Owen Ngumi (2014) “Causes of Occupational Stress In Relation To
Level of Occupational Stress among Police Constables in Kisumu County, Kenya” in IOSR Journal Of
Humanities And Social Science (IOSR-JHSS) Volume 19, Issue 11, Ver. III (Nov. 2014), PP 13-20.
occupational stress. Working environment, work overload and work schedule were causes of
occupational stress. The study recommends that: Police service commission should develop a
policy on stress management to guide the induction, operations and counselling of Police
Constables on their day to day duties.

Alexopoulos, E.C.; Palastsidi, V.; Tigani, X.; Darviri, C. (2014) 10: In the analyses carried
out, job stress and organizational identification demonstrated their importance in relation to
police officers’ job satisfaction. Our findings supported H1 and H2 that job stress had a
significantly negative impact, while organizational identification had a significantly positive
impact on job satisfaction among police officers, consisted with findings in other studies.
Nevertheless, organizational identification was found to have more impact on job satisfaction
than job stress in police officers, but its importance in affecting job satisfaction has not been
widely detected in the previous literature review. Police officers who have strong
organizational identification may perceive neutral or even negative conditions as less
detrimental because they are more likely to see the necessity of these conditions in order to
achieve the organization’s overall goals.

Wang, Y.; Zheng, L.; Hu, T.; Zheng, Q. (2014) 11: Compared with other countries, police
work in China is arguably more onerous because of excess workload, constant risk of being
injured due to strict gun-control regulation, inconsistency in implementing orders according
to law, being the representative of the government in the eye of the public, and having to
maintain social stability in a multinational region. The probable reason for the higher
proportion maybe related to the nature of police work, but also implied that stress-
management programs are lacking in Chinese police force.

Hunnur, R.R., Bagali, M.M., Sudarshan, S., (2014) 12: Five sources of law enforcement
officers' stress discovered from the preceding research are presented below. The causes
affiliated with stress in law enforcement tasks are reported by scholars and practitioners
(Hunnur et al., 2014; Yun et al., 2013). Major sources of law enforcement officials' stress in
the research involve work conditions, accessibility to social support and trust of co-workers,

10
Alexopoulos, E.C.; Palastsidi, V.; Tigani, X.; Darviri, C. “Exploring stress levels, job satisfaction, and
quality of life in a sample of police officers in Greece”. Saf. Health Work 2014, 5, 210–215.
11
Wang, Y.; Zheng, L.; Hu, T.; Zheng, Q. “Stress, burnout, and job satisfaction: Case of police force in
China”. Public Pers. Manag. 2014, 43, 325–339.
12
Hunnur, R.R., Bagali, M.M., Sudarshan, S., 2014. “Cause and effect of workplace stress among police
personnel: an empirical study”. Int. J. Manag. Res. Bus. Strategy 3 (1), 198-208.
communal and domestic influence, bureaucratic features of law enforcement organizations,
and the availability of coping mechanisms in the United States and South Korea.

Kim (2014)13: An overview of the preceding studies on stress exposes that recurring and
long-term police officer stress can lead to burnout, diminished motivation and, eventually,
resignation from their law enforcement job. However, it is evident that the body of preceding
studies on law enforcement stress and gender does not provide a full picture to understand
how some of the significant sources of perceived stress relevant to the law enforcement
function affect both female and male officers. By means of a comparison of both female and
male police officers, the current research examines the influence of individual police officer
work traits, internal setting (bureaucracy), and external setting (local community interactions)
on the physical and psychological stress of female and male police officers.

Webster, J.H., 201414: A substantial number of police stress studies have been based on the
recognition that stress can be acknowledged as a phase of dynamic processes e starting with
stressors which produce stress e via stress mediators such as coping and social support, and
ending with stress outcomes including signals of adaptational status such as psychological
conditions and somatic symptoms.

Garbarino, S.; Cuomo, G.; Chiorri, C.; Magnavita, N. (2013) 15: According to the results
of this study, only 21.2% of police officers expressed satisfaction with their police job, and
the mean score of overall job satisfaction in police officers was just medium, similar to other
studies. Besides, age was found to be positively correlated with job satisfaction among police
officers, consistent with some studies. Other studies, however, reached contradictory
conclusions, indicating the inconclusive nature of relationships between age and job
satisfaction among police officers. Moreover, in this study, 37% of police officers reported
experiencing job stress, which is a higher proportion than reported in Italian police officers.

S.Srinivasan & Dr. P. Ilango (2013)16: This research study more emphases on stress faced
by Police Constables in North Chennai. This article analyses the data from a fifty sample

13
Kim, J.L., 2014. “Examination of Six Aspects of Police Officer Stress: Looking into Organizational
Stressors for Police Occupational Stress in South Korea” (Ph.D. dissertation). Sam Houston State University,
Huntsville, TX.
14
Webster, J.H., 2014. “Perceived stress among police officers: an integrative model of stress and coping”.
Polic. Int. J. Police Strateg. Manag. 37 (4), 839e857.
15
Garbarino, S.; Cuomo, G.; Chiorri, C.; Magnavita, N. “Association of work-related stress with mental health
problems in a special police force unit”. BMJ Open 2013, 3, 1–12.
16
S.Srinivasan & Dr. P. Ilango (2013), “Stress Problems Faced by Police Constables in North Chennai” GRA
Global Research Analysis, Volume: 2 | Issue: 4 | April 2013 • ISSN No 2277 – 8160.
size, and proposes ways to stress faced by police constable in north Chennai. The researcher
covers the geographical area of Chennai and suburban, where researcher six police stations
dealing with crime and law and order. The researcher used descriptive in nature. The
researcher used convenient sampling method for selecting the respondents. Majority of the
respondents 82 percent of the respondents were admit that they had psychosomatic
complaints. 70 percent said that they easily get tempered. Most of the respondents 74 percent
were agreed that expressed from of emotion is due to their occupation. Majority of the
respondents 76 percent have the habit of smoking. Majority of 72 percent of the respondents
had the habit of consuming alcohol. Majority of the respondents 74 percent agreed the lack of
superior’s interest on subordinate is a cause for stress. Most of the respondents 70 agreed that
irregular office work causes stress. 60 percent of the respondents agree with the statement
that work beyond load is highly stressful. 72 percent of the respondents said dealing with
criminals was stressful. 78 percent of the respondents confirmed the death of their relatives as
stressful. Majority 74 percent of the respondents agreed that dealing with horrible sights
caused stress.

M.Sekar, A.Subburaj et. al (2013)17: Police work tends to impose a high degree of stress
and a multiplicity of stressful situations which can affect the physical, mental and
interpersonal relationships of police personnel. This research tries to study the reasons
leading to stress among Grade III police in Tuticorin District and also aims in analysis the
demographical factors of police personnel and their influence in the occupational stress. In
this study the researcher collects data form 200 police (Grade III) belonging to 52 police
stations in Tuticorin District, Tamilnadu. A structured questionnaire is used to collect the
information from the respondents .The questionnaire contains questions related to
demographical data and factors leading to stress. Likert Scale is used to measure the opinion
about various stress factors. The researcher has applied descriptive analysis, factor analysis,
weighted average and Chi-square for data analysis. This research explores the sources of
stress and level of stress among the head constables (grade III police constables) in Tuticorin
district, Tamilnadu.

R.S Suresh, R.N. Anantharam, Ajitha Angusamy & Jaya Ganesan (2013) 18: An attempt
was made to determine which job events are perceived as significant sources of stress in

17
M.Sekar, A.Subburaj et. al (2013) “Policing the Most Stressful Occupation: A Study on Tamilnadu Head
Constables” Int.J.Buss.Mgt.Eco.Res., Vol 4(5),2013,814-822 www.ijbmer.com | ISSN: 2229-6247.
18
R.S Suresh, R.N. Anantharam, Ajitha Angusamy & Jaya Ganesan (2013), “Sources of job stress in police
work in a developing country” in International Journal of Business and Management , vol. 8, No. 13, 2013.
police work. The police stress inventory was developed based on the interviews with police
staff and experts in police administration for this study. The questionnaire was administered
to a random sample of 220 police personnel. The respondents rated the situation as least
stressful (0%) to most stressful (100%). They consider the organizational and social aspects
of their job are more stressful especially round the clock duty, lack of time for family,
political pressures from outside and inadequate facilities. Results indicate that stress is due
more to organizational factors than to physical hazards on the job. Efforts should be made by
police administration to take corrective measures such as changes within organization and
improving training programs.

Sandiso Bazana and Nicole Dodd (2013) 19: The purpose of the study was to explore the
relationship between work-family conflict, stress and conscientiousness amongst police
officers. The study was undertaken at the South African Police Service station in Alice in the
Eastern Cape and was based on a sample size of 101 (n=101) police officers out of 134 police
officers. The study wanted to establish if there is a relationship between conscientiousness
and work-family conflict, between conscientiousness and stress (work and family) and
overall to establish whether conscientiousness and work-family conflict have a combined
effect on stress. The sample demonstrated high levels of conscientiousness and moderate to
low levels of work-family conflict, work stress and family stress. There is a negative
relationship between work-family conflict and conscientiousness (r= -.20, p=.05) and work
stress and conscientiousness (r= -.34, p=.001), but no significant relationship between
conscientiousness and family stress (r= -.09, p=>.05). Work-family conflict contributes to
both family (r=.42, p=.001) and work stress (r=.33, p=.001). Work stress and family stress
are also positively correlated (r=.19, p =.05). Work-family conflict and conscientiousness
interact to impact upon work stress F (2, 98) = 9.65, p <.001, R2 = .16, where those with
higher levels of conscientiousness are better able to reduce the impact of workfamily conflict
on work stress. Conscientiousness should be taken into consideration when screening police
officers for service.

19
Sandiso Bazana and Nicole Dodd (2013), “Conscientiousness, Work Family Conflict and Stress amongst
Police Officers in Alice, South Africa” in J Psychology, 4(1): 1-8.
Yun, I., Kim, S.G., Jung, S., Borhanian, S., (2013) 20: The primary source of stress
discovered in law enforcement tasks is connected with the distinctive work atmosphere of
law enforcement officers. The risk linked to a law enforcement job is often emphasized in
surveys of the police where police officers are instructed to rank-order a set of probable
stressors. As expected, the death of a teammate and having to shoot a person in the line of
duty are the top rated stressors recognized by police officers. Other components of stress
frequently pointed out in the literature are aggressive arrests and repulsive crime scenes. In
general, unpredictable and violent occurrences associated with law enforcement functions are
normally regarded as the main sources of both physical and psychological stress among the
police.

Hitchens (2012)21 reported that about 100 to 130 police officers commit suicide every year in
South Africa due to stress caused by the nature of police work. Police officers are obligated
to provide a safe environment to those residing in South Africa but their duties are not always
carried out in a safe environment. Organisations like the South African Police Services have
been greatly affected by escalation of criminal actions and violence. Societal changes both
political and socio-economic resulting from a transition from apartheid to a democratic
government also affected South African Police Services in the mid 1990s.

M.Shunmuga Sundaram and M. Jeya Kumaran (2012) 22: Occupation stress is a renowned
problem in police personals. Police department is the occupation that has been identified as
high level of stress. This study reveals the frequency of stressful events faced by the grade III
police constables and stress coping strategies used by them. A standard questionnaire was
used to find out the demographic profile, frequency of stress and coping strategies. 150 grade
III constables are taken into account for this study. This study explores the most common
coping strategies, in that waiting for right time to do the job is the most used coping method,
because most of the police constables are having more than 16-20 years of experience (40%),
second most used coping strategies is think how best he can handle the problems, because
most of them are having UG level qualifications and very good experience in handling crisis
situations. And also seeing criminals going free and lack of personal time are most stressful

20
Yun, I., Kim, S.G., Jung, S., Borhanian, S., 2013. “A study on police stressors, coping strategies, and
somatization symptoms among South Korean front line police officers”. Polic. Int. J. Police Strateg. Manag.
36 (4), 787-802.
21
Hitchens J 2012. Stress, Frustration Wreck Police Force. The Star Newspaper, April 10, 2012.
22
M.Shunmuga Sundaram and M. Jeya Kumaran (2012) “A Study on Occupational stress and Coping
strategies among Police Head Constables (Grade III)” in Research Journal of Management Sciences Vol. 1(1),
44-47.
events faced by the constables, In this study it shows that poor organizational policy is the
major stressor for grade III police constables.

Selokar D, Nimbarte S, Ahana S, Gaidhane A, Wagh V (2011) 23: A cross-sectional study

was conducted among 102 police personnel in Wardha city. A structured questionnaire based
on The Professional Life Stress Test by Fontana was given to all participants. A grading scale
was used to link participant’s verbal descriptions of perceived stress to a numerical scoring
system being given scores between zero and five. The total score obtained for each
respondent was considered as a measure of stress level. Different stressors that were
identified among the police personnel included criticism by superiors, excess work, no
rewards, inadequate value given to abilities and commitments and no satisfaction from work.
Seventy participants scored >15 which indicated that stress in the workplace was a problem,
while 32 participants scored ≤15, indicating stress in the workplace was not a problem. A
significant association was found with between age group, marital status, education and
working hours and the level of stress among police personnel. The majority of police
personnel studied were under stress at their workplace due to a variety of stressors. This
indicates the necessity to modify the organizational environment within the police force.

Bushara Bano (2011)24: Stress is an inevitable part of police personnel. The purpose of this
research is to identify causes of stress and also empirically investigate the socio-demographic
factors affecting stress level among police personnel. Multistage random sampling method
was employed to select a sample 65 police personnel in Aligarh (Uttar Pradesh). Findings
revealed that political pressure, lack of time for family, negative public image and low salary
were the primary causes of stress among police personnel. It also emerged that stress is
significantly more pronounced among those police personnel who are younger, more
educated, posted in rural areas and have less work experience. The findings supplement
existing body of knowledge and contribute to the understanding of causes of stress and role
of socio-demographic factors in affecting stress level among police personnel.

George T. Patterson, Irene W. Chung, Philip G. Swan (2011) 25: The objectives of this
systematic review were to identify, retrieve, evaluate and synthesize the available evidence
23
Selokar D, Nimbarte S, S Ahana, Gaidhane A, Wagh V. Occupational stress among police personnel of
Wardha City, India. AMJ 2011, 4, 3, 114-7 Doi: http//dx.doi.org/10.4066/AMJ.2011.562
24
Bushara Bano (2011) “Job Stress among Police Personnel” in International Conference on Economics and
Finance Research IPEDR vol.4 (2011) © (2011) IACSIT Press, Singapore.
25
George T. Patterson, Irene W. Chung, Philip G. Swan (2011) “The effects of stress management
interventions among police officers and recruits” in Campbell Systematic Reviews
www.campbellcollaboration.org.
regarding outcomes of stress management interventions provided to veteran police officers
and recruits. The review question is: What are the effects of officer stress management
interventions on stress outcomes? The criteria for inclusion of retrieved studies focused on
population characteristics and sampling strategies, interventions, study methods and designs,
data analysis and outcome results. Included studies required a population consisting of
veteran police officers, police recruits, and/or civilian (non-sworn) police personnel; a
randomized controlled trial (RCT), random assignment to conditions, or quasi experimental
designs that included a control group; a psychosocial or other type of stress management
intervention; quantitative outcomes although studies that utilized qualitative methods (focus
groups, interviews) were included as long as these studies focus on the interventions
examined in the RCT studies; and published and non-published studies conducted in any
geographic location. The meta-analysis was performed using the computer software program
Comprehensive Meta-Analysis Version 2.2.050 (Borenstein et al. 2009a). For studies
reporting multiple outcomes and time points these were not treated as independent. Effect
sizes were separated out by outcome type (psychological, behavioral and physiological) and
analyzed separately for different outcomes types. Among studies that contained multiple
outcomes, the outcomes were averaged. Effect sizes were not averaged across different
outcome types. Most often effect sizes were calculated using reported means, standard
deviations and sample sizes, although some effect sizes were calculated using reported
Cohen’s d and t-test results. The results of the present review indicate that stress management
interventions had no significant effect on psychological, behavioral or physiological
outcomes. Whereas stress can contribute to negative psychological, behavioral and
physiological outcomes the 12 primary studies examined psychological stress outcomes.
Only three studies examined behavioral outcomes, and two examined physiological
outcomes. Near null effects were found for psychological, behavioral, and physiological
outcomes. Moderator analyses, although difficult and exploratory with so few studies, also
failed to find any meaningful differences across the studies. These results do not provide
evidence to support the efficacy of stress management interventions for police officers or
recruits. Given the weakness of the research designs, we can neither claim that these
programs are effective or ineffective. More rigorous studies are needed that evaluate the
efficacy of stress management interventions among police officers and recruits. Several
recommendations are proposed for future research. First, police organizations should
conduct evaluation research of their current stress management interventions that includes
random assignment. Second, stress management interventions for police officers and recruits
should focus on specific types of stress (i.e., organizational or personal). The type of stress
that is the focus of the intervention should be described in studies. Finally, more qualitative
data are needed to contextualize participants’ experiences with the intervention.

Selokar D, Nimbarte S, S Ahana,Gaidhane A, Wagh V., (2011) 26: Stress can be defined as
a physiological response to physical and mental demands or “An interaction between
environmental forces and events called stress precipitators, which appear threatening to the
person’s reaction to the threat”. Evidence from the Health and Safety Executive suggests that
20% of workers feel ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ stressed at work, with the proportion rising to 49%
in some occupational groups. Police is the one of the most considerable and important
profession in the world. To stop crimes from happening and to bring convicts to justice and to
help people out who may need help, maybe with some legal issue, this are the main duties of
policemen. And they are important for the mere fact they protect and serve the public.

Hickman MJ, Fricas J, Strom KJ, Pope MW (2011) 27: Considering that police officers are
continually confronted with hostility, physical violence, and harshness, and routinely become
involved in high-pressure, urgent situations, policing is deemed as one of a handful of
vocations that require workers to continually deal with potential risk and to put their own
lives at risk at any time. Such features of police function are linked to work-related stress as
stress triggers, i.e., stressors. Police work-related stress adversely affects its employees; for
instance, police officers who are subject to substantial degrees of work-related stress are
exposed to an increased number of physical and mental health troubles that inhibit job
performance.

Leedy & Ormrod (2010)28: Frequency analysis is used to predict how often certain values of
a variable phenomenon may occur and to assess the reliability of the prediction. In the
following section, the frequency analysis was performed to determine the proportion or the
extent to which police officers disagree or agree with each variable or item of occupational
stress. Cumulative percentage values for both “disagree” and “agree” scales were used to
assess the level of occupational stress variables.

26
Selokar D, Nimbarte S, S Ahana,Gaidhane A, Wagh V., 2011. “Occupational stress among police personnel
of Wardha City, India”. Australasian Medical Journal, 4 (3): 114 -117.
27
Hickman MJ, Fricas J, Strom KJ, Pope MW (2011), “Mapping police stress”. Police Quarterly 14: 227-250.
28
Leedy, P.D., & Ormrod, J.E. (2010). Practical Research: planning and design. New Jersey: Kevin M. Davis.
Omeja and Githigaro (2010)29: argued that Kenyan police officers are exposed to traumatic
and violent work environment. They are in constant confrontation with drug and alcohol
addicts, violent persons and political hooliganism during party electioneering. The officers
on several occasions are forced to disperse the youths and organized gangs. Police officers in
the Kenya are often victims and the main targets of violent criminals including outlawed
groups for instance the „Mungiki‟ menace has reached dangerous unprecedented proportions
as well as “Inchikororo”, “Amachuma” and “Sungusungu”, “Taliban”“Jeshi la Mzee”,
“Baghdad boys” “Angola Msumbiji” “Republican Revolutionary Council”, “SLDF” in other
parts of Kenya. Police officers also deal with people who engage in oath taking, rituals,
extortion and sharking. Officers work with inadequate resources and lack of adequate trained
human resource. The police work in Western European, North American, South Africa and
Kenya inclusive is considered to be more dangerous and stressful. The working environment
for police officers is marked by increasing violence, high crime rates and execution of police
officers on and off duty.

Weinberg, Sutherland & Cooper (2010)30: Quantitative overload may be experienced by an

employee who does not have the ability to accomplish the assigned tasks or amount of work
within a specific time frame, whereas, qualitative overload may be experienced by, for
example, an unskilled employee who is promoted into a supervisory position and yet does not
have relevant supervisory experience. Qualitative under load occurs when an employee is not
granted an opportunity to apply the acquired SKAs in an organisation in order to develop
potential. A failure of managers or employers to grant an employee an opportunity to apply
the acquired SKAs may result in occupational stress.

Louw and Viviers (2010)31: Police officers are expected to exercise discretion under very
critical circumstances. According to, police officers have a social support base that can
include spouses, partners, children or friends; however this support base may also serve as a
source of stress. Both work and family are central to one’s life but these roles do not always
readily reconcile, in particular when workers are faced with major stressors in the workplace
and long working hours, such as in the police service. Work-family conflict has a significant

29
Omeja, K & Githigaro, J.K (2010). “The Peace And Conflict Review” Journal Volume 7, Issue ISSN: 1659-
3995.
30
Weinberg, A., Sutherland, V.J., & Cooper, C. (2010). “Organisational Stress Management: a strategic
approach”. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
31
Louw GJ, Viviers A 2010. “An evaluation of a psychosocial stress and coping model in the police work
context”. SA Journal of Industrial Psychology/SA Tydskrif vir Bedryfsielkunde, 36(1): 1-11.
influence on family distress, which is the experience of stress associated with one’s family
role.

Shane JM (2010)32: Police officers working on non-day shifts in the current study may
provide evidence in support of this possibility. Furthermore, these unmet needs might be
associated with the increased number of other stressors such as “fellow officers not doing
their job” and “demands made by family for more time”. It would be worthwhile to
investigate whether police officers working on non-day shifts encounter a higher number of
stressful events in other agencies that have different supervising strategies and administration
levels. There may be an expectation that the main source of police work-related stress would
be from physical/psychological threats.

32
Shane JM. Organizational stressors and police performance. J Crim Justice 2010;38:807e18.