Public Safety Personnel (e.g., firefighters, paramedics, and police officers) are routinely exposed to human suffering and need to make quick, morally challenging decisions. Such decisions can affect ...their psychological wellbeing. Participating in or observing an event or situation that conflicts with personal values can potentially lead to the development of moral injury. Common stressors associated with moral injury include betrayal, inability to prevent death or harm, and ethical dilemmas. Potentially psychologically traumatic event exposures and post-traumatic stress disorder can be comorbid with moral injury; however, moral injury extends beyond fear to include spiritual, cognitive, emotional or existential struggles, which can produce feelings of severe shame, guilt, and anger.
This scoping review was designed to identify the extant empirical research regarding the construct of moral injury, its associated constructs, and how it relates to moral distress in firefighters, paramedics, and police officers.
A systematic literature search of peer-reviewed research was conducted using databases MEDLINE, EMBASE, APA PsychInfo, CINHAL PLUS, Web of Science, SCOPUS, and Google Scholar. Included studies were selected based on the inclusion criteria before being manually extracted and independently screened by two reviewers.
The initial database search returned 777 articles, 506 of which remained after removal of duplicates. Following review of titles, abstracts, and full texts, 32 studies were included in the current review. Participants in the articles were primarily police officers, with fewer articles focusing on paramedics and firefighters. There were two studies that included mixed populations (i.e., one study with police officers, firefighters, and other emergency service workers; one study with paramedic and firefighter incident commanders). Most studies were qualitative and focused on four topics: values, ethical decision-making, organizational betrayal, and spirituality.
Public safety organizations appear to recognize the experience of moral distress or moral injury among public safety personnel that results from disconnects between personal core values, formal and informal organizational values, vocational duties, and expectations. Further research is needed to better understand moral distress or moral injury specific to public safety personnel and inform training and treatment in support of public safety personnel mental health.
The monograph reflects and scientifically and methodologically substantiates ways to solve urgent problems of the theory and practice of training officers of the National Police in terms of the ...quality of higher education in the context of the imperative of human-dimensional meanings, taking into account studies of Ukrainian psychological, pedagogical, legal comparative studies. In the most general form, the material is presented regarding the strategic guidelines for the quality of education in the WHE with special learning conditions in the context of Ukraine's integration into the European educational space. Philosophical and methodological approaches to solving existing disagreements in the field of human measurement of the quality of police education in Ukraine and abroad are studied in integral connection with the corresponding concepts of human development; leadership theories; the genesis of personnel work on professional training and evaluation of the activities of police officers in the system of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. Features of the human-measurement training of officers of the National Police of Ukraine are explained on the basis of the provisions of the modern post-non-classical methodology of science, a general scientific holistic approach, humanistic pedagogy, as well as the methodological foundations for the implementation of international standards of ethical behavior in the activities of police officers, which is an objective need of the current Ukrainian education system in general and in particular, a prerequisite for the prevention of corruption offenses, the vitality of virtue in society. The productivity of reflexive practices of self-organization of the personality of future police officers is substantiated as a condition for the development of psychological resilience. The book proves the necessity and prospects of research and implementation in the theory and practice of police education of the concept of Ukrainian general scientific methodology regarding the unity of the formation and development of a Human on the basis of the cognitive-emotional-volitional triad of components of the value experience of the individual. Based on the real originality of the formation of the value experience of a police officer in the process of professional training, constructive practice, the general theoretical and methodological origins and meaningful lines of practical improvement and further personal and professional growth of a police officer in their official activities as mechanisms for protecting human rights and freedoms in the activities of law enforcement officers are identified. The novelty of the approaches is associated with the use of the key foundations of psycho-pedagogical support and the development of pedagogical skills of HEI teachers with special learning conditions, the activities of mentors to harmonize the professional training of the applicant's personality in the system of departmental education, the use of a criteria approach for assessing learning outcomes, the design features of police work programs in the context of the scale of human-dimensional meanings evaluating the quality of higher education The constructiveness of this perspective is distinguished, first of all, by a holistic combination and use as the latest achievements of the psychological, pedagogical, legal, neurophysiological branches of scientific knowledge to explain the newly formed pedagogical phenomena of the modern educational sphere in the aspect of innovativeness of markers for assessing the quality of educational and research activities education; and the understanding that universal human and nation-creating value orientations as a special social basis of the culturological worldview should be extrapolated into the global function of modern education, which should determine and realize its social power that characterizes civilizational development in different historical epochs. In this context, the issues of introducing the axiological essence, designing, implementing and evaluating the relevant educational programs for training officers of the National Police are specified. In general, the developments contained in this collective monograph will be suitable for use in the pedagogical and psychological support of educational activities for the training of police officers both in the framework of formal and non-formal education.
This paper presents analysis of the legal documents regarding interpretation of citizenship regarding activities of a police officer, and presents some data from an empiric study carried out in 2019. ...The purposes of the empiric study was to examine to which degree police officers and future police officers conceptualise themselves as citizens, and to which extent they participate in citizen’s entitlements and their manifestations. The analysis of the legal documents revealed that there are no direct and straightforward stipulations on the interpretations and the manifestations of citizenship, while a police officer and his/her activities are at the focus. Legal documents directly related to requirements for activities and behaviour of a contemporary police officer do not use the term itself. However, a number of requirements and expectations, that may be related to the term ‘citizenship’ are listed both at the level of acts, and other documents. The empiric study, based on quantitative research strategy revealed several issues for concern. Though just a part of data is presented. However, it is worth noting that for the clarification of the reasons and motives for some answers, further studies are needed. Interviews, focus groups may provide more in-depth insights into some aspects.
U radu se prikazuje uloga policijskih službenika za mladež u kaznenopravnoj zaštiti djece u Republici Hrvatskoj s posebnim osvrtom na suradnju i očekivanja doprinosa zdravstvenih djelatnika, osobito ...pedijatara u prepoznavanju i pravodobnom prijavljivanju sumnji na zlostavljanje djeteta. Prikazom zakonskih odredbi vezanih za tajnost izvida, ali i obveze prijavljivanja sumnji na kazneno djelo iz područja kaznenopravne zaštite djece, postavljaju se polazne postavke za razmjenu informacija između nadležnih tijela i stručnjaka. Na rastući problem i pojavnost različitih oblika povrede djetetovih prava upozorava se s pomoću statističkog prikaza stanja i kretanja kaznenih djela KPZ-a djece i obitelji u RH. U cilju osvješćivanja i prepoznavanja potencijalno suspektnih ponašanja, izdvojeno je nekoliko najčešćih ugroza i povreda djetetovih prava: fizičko zlostavljanje, sindrom trešenog djeteta (eng. shaking baby sindrom), pokazatelji zanemarivanja djetetovih potreba, pokazatelji emocionalnog zlostavljanja – manipulativni postupci roditelja.
The article examines a topical issue related to the protection of the police officers’ honor and dignity. It has been comprehensively analyzed the objects of legal protection, namely the concepts of ...“honor” and “dignity”, in order to determine what exactly is being infringed upon. In addition, the article examines the legal act that previously regulated the issue of liability for violation of the honor and dignity of police officers, but today the relevant provision, which was previously contained in the Criminal Code of Ukraine, has been excluded.
In order to confirm the absence of legislative consolidation of liability for violation of the right to honor and dignity of a police officer, the author has studied two legal acts, namely the Criminal Code of Ukraine and the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses. As a result of the analysis, neither elements of a crime nor elements of an administrative offense have been identified that would establish liability for violation of the right to honor and dignity of a police officer. However, it has been stated that such an act is an offense and cannot be avoided. This is a significant gap in the law. The latest confirmation of the absence of liability is a court decision. The court highlighted that police officers have appropriate guarantees of their activities from the state and support, so such actions, which are manifested in violation of the right to respect for the honor and dignity of a police officer, do not violate their rights, but are aimed at the interests of the state. It has also been established that there was a legislative initiative to recognize the violation of the right to honor and dignity of a police officer as an offense and to make appropriate amendments to the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses, but it did not come into force. Therefore, it has been proposed to develop a separate mechanism for judicial protection of the right to respect for the honor and dignity of a police officer or to recognize such an act as socially dangerous or socially harmful with appropriate amendments to legislative acts.
This study sought to identify factors that predicted outcomes for sexual assault cases involving female victims across several decision-making points and compare these findings to prior studies. The ...results indicate that there continues to be a high attrition rate in the handling of sexual assault cases. Only 9.7% of cases examined resulted in charges. In regards to processing decisions, most of the factors that predicted whether cases were founded, resulted in arrest, presented to the prosecution, or resulted in felony charges were extralegal factors. One factor appeared to influence several decision-making points: whether officers noted discrepancies in victim statements.
The COVID-19 outbreak and its practical impacts are changing policing and police responses. Alongside the relentless efforts of the health sector, the role of police forces has been the subject of ...debate between the global South and North. As the first study in Vietnam, this paper explains how Vietnam’s police applied community-based policing to prevent and detect the interlaced occurrences among old and new patients at the communal cluster. Multiple sources were used to collect secondary data on police responses in the first lockdowns between February and March 2020. Online interviews with police leaders and six frontline officers were conducted to collect primary data. The findings show that, in each case, Vietnamese police implemented dynamic operations as much as possible in an effort to elicit voluntary collaborations to detect and contain COVID-19. Police used “onion-layer” and “door-to-door” approaches to coordinate and cooperate with their partners in the health sector. In addition, delivering persuasive propaganda was highly prioritized to incite local people to take up preventive measures rather than enforce them. The paper concludes with four specific recommendations and further discussions aimed at improving community-based policing’s effectiveness in future exceptional circumstances.
Police officer suicide rates hit an all-time high in the province of Ontario, Canada, in 2018. Sadly, this statistic is somewhat unsurprising, as research has shown that police officers suffer from ...higher rates of mental health disorder diagnoses compared to the general public. One key reason for the elevated levels of suicide and other mental health issues among police officers is believed to stem from the stigma associated with seeking help. In an attempt to address these serious issues, Ontario’s police services have begun to create internal peer support programs as a way of supporting their members. The present research explores the experiences of police officers serving as peer-support team members, particularly with regards to the impacts of peer support. In addition, this research also examines the importance of discussing shared experiences regarding a lack of standardized procedures for the administration and implementation of peer support in relation to the Policy Feedback Theory. The Policy Feedback Theory (PFT) posits that, when a policy becomes established and resources are devoted to programs, it helps structure current activity. This study utilized a phenomenological, qualitative approach, with data collection consisting of face-to-face interviews with nine police officers serving on the York Regional Police’s peer-support team. The findings revealed that peer support is more than just a “conversation”; rather, it suggests to contribute to enhancing mental health literacy among police officers, and it significantly contributes to stigma reduction. The findings also revealed that internal policy demonstrated an organizational commitment to mental health and peer-support, and that a provincial standard is necessary to ensure best practices and risk management in the creation and maintenance of peer-support programs.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to review current research on police officer mental health and to explore the reasons why police officers do not seek mental health treatment.
...Design/methodology/approach
A comprehensive, systematic search of multiple academic databases (e.g. EBSCO Host) were used to identify studies conducted within the USA, identified definitions of first responders, identified the type of duty-related trauma expected by police officers, how influential stigma is amongst the police culture and what current intervention strategies are employed to assist police officer mental health wellness.
Findings
This research was conducted to identify police officer trauma-related mental health and the stigma behind seeking treatment. The research highlights job-related trauma and stress leads to the development of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, substance use disorder and suicide or suicide ideation. The stigma behind seeking mental health treatment is associated with law enforcement organizations and environmental factors. Organizational factors include occupational stress characteristics such as day-to-day of the job and environmental factors such as abiding by social and law enforcement culture ideologies. Further research should be conducted to understand why law enforcing agencies and personnel are unknowingly promoting stigmas.
Originality/value
This is the most current meta-review of research examining the severity of mental health in police officers, the stigma behind acquiring treatment and innovative treatment approaches in police officer mental health. This study will provide a useful resource for those researchers interested in continuing to examine the different aspects of police officer mental health and how to potently approach innovative interventions to help law enforcement personals mental wellness thrive in a field where trauma is experienced daily.
This study describes police attitudes and perceptions of health and wellbeing among police officers who work on Rape and Serious Sexual Offences (RASSO) cases. A mixed-methods approach was deployed ...including a cross-sectional online survey of RASSO officers and a qualitative study involving in-depth interviews in one English Police Force Area. Findings show that organisational policies have little salience. There is an entrenched culture of continuing to work despite being unwell, to provide operational support for colleagues. There is a need to develop specific strategies that reduce the stress for a team or unit-level for this cohort of police officers.
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