Example research essay topic: Police Officers Domestic Violence - 1,517 words

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Police Stress Police stress is the phenomenon that only became very common in recent times. Nowadays, even the slightest accident has the potential of turning in violent confrontation. For example, the term road rage was unheard of even back in seventies, now its a reality of every big city in America. Also there were never any school shootings, which now became almost fashionable, thanks to Hollywood movies that unwillingly promote them. Even twenty years ago, it was a common practice for police officers in many states, to go on duty without carrying guns. Suburban neighborhoods had very low crime rate, people would often leave the doors of their houses unlocked when they werent around.

Thanks to much promoted multiculturalism and tolerance America is different these days, and police officer on duty is now being under the same pressure as frontline soldier. The term police stressed became synonym of individual capable of loosing its cool, which often leads to unpredictable consequences. Police officers can arrest person without warrant and deprive him of his basic human freedoms. They can go as far as killing an individual if circumstances arise. Thats why any decisions on part of police cannot be made under influence of emotionalism.

Its becoming quite common that officers are being laid off, because of their inability to cope with the stress. There are too kinds of police stresses some of the them come quickly as results of shootouts and chases, others accumulate gradually and its just a matter of time before stress bursts out. Most of the time, officers never go for psychological counseling because of professional reasons. Im personally very skeptical that talking to psychologist, who had never walked in police officers shoes, can make any difference. Psychological consultation became very fashionable in recent times, but as practice shows, its not as effective as it tries to appear.

Not just police officers are susceptible for stress but also representatives of all high-risk professions like firefighters, military servicemen and pilots. Civil Air Patrol National Headquarters defines Critical Incident as: An event which acts as a turning point (crisis event), with impact sufficient enough to overwhelm the usually effective coping skills of an individual; it is usually sudden, powerful, and outside the range of normal human experience. If extreme enough, the experience may serve as the catalyst for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. (2) Yet, in my opinion, Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) is based on the wrong assumption that all individuals are equally susceptible to stress and it offers the same approach to all cases: CISM is considered to be universally applicable because it consists of multiple crisis intervention components that functionally span the entire temporal spectrum of a crisis (2) This, of course, cannot be effective as 60 % of peoples behavioral pattern is defined by biological factors. The theory of Bell Curve has recently proven it, although it is not much talked about as it contradicts the concept of universal equality. What also has to be taken into account, while dealing with police stress, that there are four personality types: Melancholic, Sanguine, Choleric, and Phlegmatic. Each of them has its own degree of susceptibility to stress.

There are psychological tests are being done on police officers, which are meant to evaluate them from personality type point of view. For example, Choleric type of person would at much higher risk of getting stressed out than any others. This has to be taken into consideration when is comes to posting officers, yet so far this practice had not attained the official status, because the next logical step from psychological profiling is racial profiling. It is no secret that many police officers indulge in drinking. In my opinion, although this is not the best way to relief stress, its still much better than psychologist telling officers that: everything is just fine. Just as smoking, drinking is overall dangerous, but one of its effects is that it does help to deal with stress.

If officer becomes an alcoholic it means that hes just psychologically weak person and nothing can help him in this respect. Such officer has no right to protect his fellow citizens safety. The best way to deal with this problem is to fire police officer that has been noticed to overindulge in alcohol. The suicide rate among police officers is staggering, even though that about 50 % of all suicides among cops, are covered up. It is important to understand that police officers are just regular people and theyre also susceptible to depression, as anyone else. Depression and fear of being caught in illegal activities, which will lead to time in jail, are the most important causes for police suicides.

Psychological counseling can reduce this problem a bit, but overall it is very ineffective. Police officers realize that they risk their lives for nothing, as crime rate in U. S. is rising, despite all their efforts.

If government finally adopts sensible immigration and social policies, itll automatically lead to reduction of crime, which in its turn, will make police officers feel that there is point in their work. The era of political correctness has also brought possibility for women to serve in police. There is no doubt that peoples rights cannot be diminished on the grounds of their gender. Yet, as it being said earlier, todays police officer can be compared to frontline soldier. In both cases risk of loosing life is very high. But regardless of political correctness, there are still no females participating in actual combat, as well as there are no females allowed on American submarine fleet.

Fact remains fact despite our politicians and medias doing their hardest to degenderise our society, females simply cannot cope with males physically and very often mentally. When biology and politics confront each other, biology will always win. I think its great that females can be police officers now, but its not super-great. As practice shows, female police officers are much more susceptible to stress than men. Sometimes there doesnt even have to be actual stress for them to feel stressful, this happens every month when they deal with their PMS. Female officers can do their job as effective as male officers, yet stress impacts their health to the degree when their reproductive functions come under great risk.

The percentage of domestic violence has risen dramatically in recent times in police statistics. This is because ordinary citizens have to deal with ever increasing stress as well. What adds to the problem is the fact that people now have to hide their emotions, because God forbids if theyre labeled being racist or sexist... But back at home they express what they think freely and this often leads to outbreaks of violence.

I think itd help greatly to reduce domestic violence if police encouraged people to attend shooting ranges and release their anger on targets, instead of releasing it on members of their families. Domestic violence occurs because people feel helpless everywhere else, but at home. Again, only empowering people with political freedoms can effectively resolve this problem. Police cant be constantly repairing damage done by politics. This corresponds to so-called family seminars. Basically, people are invited to learn and accept morality, which is based on Christian values.

Yet, American society consists of people that belong to many cultural backgrounds. That is why this approach cant be effective. Why do Muslims need to respect their wives, for example, when their religion tells them that women dont even have soul? Again, the root of the problem can only be eliminated on governmental level. To conclude this we need to say that police stress, becoming the most important issue that law enforcement institutions have to deal with, while trying to increase its effectiveness. I think there are two the most important keys to resolve this problem: 1) Government needs to adjust its demographic policies, which would lead reduction of crime rate 2) Psychological profiling has to play the most important role in how people are being selected to become cops.

Only Idealists should be allowed to pursue with careers of police officers, as being the least susceptible to stress. When individual puts well-being of society above its own, itll insure that no sight of blood, spilled on the walk side, will cause him / her to become hysterical. Bibliography: Brown, H. Introduction to Police Stress (2003) LICSW.

Retrieved November 19, 2004 from web Critical Incident Stress Management (2002, August 17) Civil Air National Headquarters. Retrieved November 19, 2004 from web Dealing With Anger: An Attitude Change May Save Your Life (2003) Retrieved November 19, 2004 from web Personality Types Under Stress - ESTP, ESFP, ESTJ, ESFJ (2002) Psychology. Retrieved November 19, 2004 from web Personality Types - The Four Temperaments. (2002) Psychology. Retrieved November 19, 2004 from web Police Suicide: The Tragic Outcome of Police Stress (2002, October 21) Retrieved November 19, 2004 from web Sanders, G. Why Police Officers Have So Much Trouble Getting Psychological Support? (2003, July 13). Retrieved November 19, 2004 from web What is Domestic Violence? (2004, September 19).

Northern Territory Police. Retrieved November 19, 2004 from web

Research essay sample on Police Officers Domestic Violence