This book examines how fifty police officers in South Australia keep well and “bounce back” from duty-related traumatic experience in the absence of practical, accessible and timely organisational support. It investigates mechanisms police officers presently use to “normalise” their duty-related traumatic experiences to preserve the delicate professional balance between “coping” and “psychic numbing” and avoid the much publicised perils of a PTSD diagnosis, while being appropriately responsive to colleagues, victims and survivors in their daily work environment. By revealing how police officers manage trauma—outside of the expectations of mental health professionals, union representatives and police leadership—innovative approaches and recommendations are offered to support first responders in moving from assumptions of post-traumatic stress and through post-traumatic growth. The book considers recent advances in post-traumatic growth and resilience theory and reinterprets exposure in a positive context, as well as preventative experiences in Australia and internationally.

How does it feel to be a police officer? Jessica Miller uses the most recent neuroscience and real-life examples to explore risks to individual resilience. A compulsory read for anyone with an interest in policing, the book offers practical resilience techniques and policy recommendations for police officers facing crime in a post-COVID world.

Police work increases the risk of psychological work-related injuries substantially: As a result of repeated exposure to trauma, police and first responders have more than twice the risk of developing Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) when compared to the general population. We often hear of the impact of PTSD and depression on police officers’ health and overall functioning, including on their work performance. Both PTSD and depression are part of Operational Stress Injuries (OSI), which describe any persistent psychological difficulty that results from operational or service-related duties. Next to depression and PTSD, OSI includes anxiety disorders, substance use disorders, injury and pain, sleep disturbances and other conditions that may interfere with daily functioning. Importantly, factors frequently observed in police officers, such as burnout, moral injury, and compassion fatigue present additional mental health issues, further contribute to the maintenance and exacerbation of their psychological symptomatology, thereby prolonging recovery and contributing to the chronicity of disability, suffering and pain.

Law Enforcement Ethics: Classic and Contemporary Issues for the New Millennium covers many of the important facets of law enforcement ethics, including the selection, training, and supervision of officers. Editor Brian D. Fitch brings together the works of a diverse task force with a vested interested in reducing officer misconduct—including law enforcement scholars, educators, and practitioners from a variety of disciplines—to present a comprehensive look at this critical subject that is gaining more attention in agencies and in the media today. The text covers topics on the roles of culture, environment, social learning, policy, and reward systems as they pertain to law enforcement ethics, as well as the ethics of force, interrogations, marginality, and racial profiling. This volume also covers several unique aspects of ethics, such as the role of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in misconduct (PTSD), cheating during law enforcement promotional practices, off-duty misconduct, and best practices in developing countries.

Police psychology has become an integral part of present-day police agencies, providing support in the areas of personnel assessment, individual and organizational intervention, consultation, and operational assistance. Research-based resources contribute to those efforts by shedding light on best practices, identifying recent research and developments, and calling attention to important challenges and growth areas that remain. Police Psychology and Its Growing Impact on Modern Law Enforcement emphasizes key elements of police psychology as it relates to current issues and challenges in law enforcement and police agencies. Focusing on topics relevant to assessment and evaluation of applicants and incumbent officers, clinical intervention and prevention, employee wellness and support, operational consultation, and emerging trends and developments, this edited publication is an essential reference source for practicing police psychologists, researchers, graduate-level students, and law enforcement executives.

In a critical analysis of conventional understanding, leading authors Claire Davis and Marisa Silvestri present bold new conceptualisations of police leadership. Drawing on empirical research in criminology, sociology and leadership studies, they present a thoughtful critique of the nature and practice of leadership in contemporary policing. The book: - Critically explores the identities of leaders and their positions within wider organisational structures and processes; - Provides a critique of contemporary reform to police professionalisation, training and education, equalities and diversity by situating these developments within wider historical, social and political context; - Draws on critical theory to offer an alternative, challenging and novel interpretation of police leaders as not simply the result of individual experiences and attitudes, but of the social, institutional and historical processes of policing and the cultures that exist within it; - Points towards future directions and a reimagining of leadership in the police. Accessible and stimulating, this is an essential text for policing students and valuable reading for current leaders and those interested in policing, criminology and leadership.

This edited collection brings together scholars and practitioners to consider the ways in which policing organisations approach vulnerability and the strategies they develop to reduce victims, offenders and police officers’ susceptibility to increased harm. Based on their work with policing services, the public criminologists and critical policing scholars collected together in this edited volume consider vulnerability in terms of people, processes, and institutional practices. While more attention is being paid to some experiences of vulnerability — particularly at the later stages of the criminal justice process — this collection will be the first to focus on the specific issues faced by policing services as the front end of criminal justice. The case studies of vulnerability in each chapter offer the reader new insights into the operational concerns in working with vulnerable people (including vulnerable police officers). This collection is ideally suited for scholars of applied criminal justice studies (including policing studies), police recruits and officers in training, and policing practitioners such as policy and program development officers.