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Policing Literature Review

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Literature Review Policing is a highly stressful occupation that can cause physical and psychological consequences. Descriptions of the variables used in this study are provided. Help-seeking is described as an adoptive coping process that is the attempt to obtain external assistance to deal with a mental concern (Rickwood & Brandford, 2012). Gender refers to the attitudes, feelings and behaviours that a given culture associates with a person’s biological sex (American Psychological Association, 2011). Police culture is defined as the norms and values that governs police interactions. This section explores two central themes to provide an understanding of police officers attitude towards seeking professional psychological help: Gender and …show more content…

This belief has been supported by numerous gender studies. Berg, Erlend, Bjour and Oivind, 2006 reported that females had both a greater recognition of the need of psychological help and confidence in the ability of the professional to assist them in resolving their challenges. Men are more reluctant to seek counselling because it is incongruent with values such as, toughness, emotional control and aggression acquired through socialization (Berger, Levant, McMillian, Kelleher, & Sellers 2005). Being a predominately a male dominated occupation (Gerber, 2001), Karaffa (2012) postulated that police officers are socialized to suppress their emotions to avoid being judged as weak and incapable of fulfilling one’s duty. On the contrary, Karaffa (2012) investigated the attitude towards seeking mental health in a sample of 158 Texan police officers by administering a 47 item online survey that composed of Attitude Towards Seeking Psychological Help-Short Form (ATSPH-SF), police culture surveys, perception item, identification item and demographics. The researchers found that female officers held negative view towards seeking professional psychological help than females in comparison to college students, while male officers did not differ in their attitudes compared to college students when investigating if police officers held a more negative …show more content…

According to Woody (2006) police officers are taught that fellow officers are the only reliable source of support. The culture of the police officer reinforces emotional control and toughness even in the light of danger. As mentioned previously, this may be attributed to this being a male dominated occupation. Despite being constantly faced with risk, Berg, Erlend, Bjour and Oivind (2006), in their survey study of 3,272 police officers of different ranks, indicated police officers rarely sought mental health professional help even when contemplating suicide. The researchers further posit that it is difficult for police officers to admit that they have a problem. Thus, this research seeks to investigate if the Belize police officer culture encourages or discourages seeking professional psychological

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