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Goal Statement

The purpose of this intro is to inform the reader that the study being done will try to show the male police officer’s identity and how they are affected by police work.  It is a personal subject because being a Criminology major at Indian University of Pennsylvania I have chosen the path to become a Pennsylvania State Trooper.   I would like to know the personal effects that police work brings about the officer after they have left the job for the day.  As a reader it will benefit you as to see the inside workings of police officers.  For wanting to be a Trooper I feel that the public hates officer’s when they correct them but hates to see an officer killed in the line of duty.  This can portray different emotions within the officer that are conflicting for the people that he serves.   People must understand that being a male police officer they must carry multiple personality traits with them at all times.  When pursuing a suspect and trying to successfully apprehend that suspect they must play the identity of enforcer and protector.  When dealing with emotional situations they must be a social worker.  When dealing with their family life they must learn how not to carry the weight of the day on their shoulders and become the family man and son that they were before the day had started.  Their emotions may be brought home and they cannot disconnect from what they had previously experienced earlier that day on the job.  This section will differ from other sections because it will give my own personal beliefs and I will cite research that has already been conducted to back up my beliefs.  In later sections I will show one on one interviews with officers in different agencies and see their own personal feelings.  Also, there will be cited information throughout the paper to show factual studies.  By the end of this article I hope that it will show and portray the officer in a positive way and that the public that he serves can better understand the ever internal conflicts that he fights day in and day out.  This paper will be written in mind that professors that teach Criminology, Criminal Justice, and those who teach psychology will be reading it.

The purpose of the intro was to show the reader a game plan on how the paper was going to be written.  It has helped me as an author focus on the main topics that I feel that are most important to get across to my audience.  It has differed from other sections in this paper because it only explained what was going to happen.  It did not go in depth with the actual study.  The study, the interviewing of officers, however did go into more detail with how they felt about their job and how they felt their performance impacted the situation that they were in.  Also, it looked at the thoughts they had when still on the job and when they were finished for the day.   As a reader I hope that the situations that are listed in this paper have helped you better understand how police officers function.  My goals were to establish that being a male police officer has a certain persona that the he must carry with them at all times and also that the officers have not only one identity but many.  They must balance their work life when wearing the uniform and when they shed it become the father, husband, son, friend that they previously were.   My intended target audiences were those primarily dealing with psychological processes and those in the criminology departments.  I made the article so that it could be better understood that there are many identities within a male officer.  That would be the psychological aspect of the paper.  But this paper also has benefited those in the criminology field because it has a better understanding at looking for trouble signs within individuals who cannot posses the multiple personalities needed for this stressful job.      

 

 

Police Identity: 

The Multiple Identities of Male Police Officers

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kyle J. Callahan

 

Research Writing: English 202

Professor Harrison

March 2, 2010

 

2

 

Introduction

Male police officers, by nature of the job, face stressful situations and are placed into events with no prior knowledge of what can or will happen.  Such events as a routine traffic stop can turn out to be the last for the officer.  Male officers have many different personas they must put on in order to successfully do their job and be successful after they have left the job site.  This can be a problem.  With so much stress from the day they may be apt to take it home with them.  They may become alcoholics, violent offenders, or disconnect with their family and friends.  Researcher Michael Arter cites, “Law enforcement has been identified as one of the most stressful occupations, both in the United States and worldwide (Anshel 2000).”[1]  He also cites, “Consequently, police officers experience higher mortality rates, higher rates of coronary disease, and higher rates of alcohol abuse and clinical depression as compared to the general population (Toch 2002).”[2]  Officers confront different situations daily, “Although the “fight or flight” option is available to the general population, and utilized on a daily basis in numerous situations, such an option is not available to police officers.”[3]  In turn, officers must maintain the situation while first, keeping their lives safe, the bystanders safe, and finally if possible the suspect in question.

When coming home to the family environment officers must separate their lives.  Many may come to the conclusion that officer’s family marriage lives are affect heavily from their job.  Laurence miller says, “Actually, considering the stresses and challenges of law enforcement work, it may seem surprising that the marriages and family lives of these professionals do not seem to differ dramatically from those of workers in other fields.”[4]  Miller goes further to explain that the stress experienced is from the spouse.  Over 75% of the officer’s spouses report degrees of stress experienced from the job.[5]  Miller says, “Stereotypical “tough guy” macho values and attitudes-among both male and female…pervade the law enforcement culture (Miller, 1995, 1999, 2003, 2004, 2006).”[6]  When dealing with the persona of an officer they usually lack the necessary sentiment needed for a healthy relationship.  When, “On the job, law enforcement officers must maintain a keen sense of alertness, vigilance, and mental preparedness, which often includes an occupationally reinforced suspiciousness and general distrust of people’s motives, statements, and actions (Blum, 2000; Duran, 1999; Garner, 2005).[7]  This is generally carried with them everywhere they go.  Miller talks about how the held back anger and frustration, “may spill out into verbal abuse or physical violence at home.”[8] 

The research being conducted is about how a male officer must find multiple identities within themselves.  It is crucial that they do this because of the huge stresses that they face.  Robert Merton expanded the idea of General Strain Theory with anomie.  He dug deeper with individual strain theory.  He focused on, “the individual and the intimate environment as determinates of reactive behaviors to strain.  Negative relationships and the desire to avoid negative situations are the primary motivations identified in general strain theory.”[9]  With this theory it is believed that the officer will turn to deviance in order to release the stress experienced on the job.  The deviance can occur in as stated above domestic abuse with the officer’s spouse.  With the research being conducted I will prove the multiple personalities that are within the officer and when they cannot cope with them properly they are apt to fail at either their job or their personal life.  Officers from Indiana Borough, Pennsylvania State Police, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and a small municipality will be interviewed.  They will be asked questions pertaining to how they view their selves as a police officer, what it means to them to be a police officer, how they cope with work and family life and what their largest stresses of their job are.  The research will focus on male officers with more than 2 years of experience.  Their rank, age, race, and where they are from will not influence how the research will be conducted.  However, it may influence their personal feelings of the questions that will be asked.  The research will prove how male officers develop multiple personalities over a course of a career.

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[1] Arter, Michael L. “Stress and Deviance in Policing.” Deviant Behavior 29, no. 1 (January 2008): 43-69. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost.

[2] Arter, Michael L. “Stress and Deviance in Policing.” Deviant Behavior 29, no. 1 (January 2008): 43-69. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost.

[3] Arter, Michael L. “Stress and Deviance in Policing.” Deviant Behavior 29, no. 1 (January 2008): 43-69. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost.

[4] Miller, Laurence. “Police Families: Stresses, Syndromes, and Solutions.” American Journal of Family Therapy 35, no. 1 (January 2007): 21-40. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost.

[5] Miller, Laurence. “Police Families: Stresses, Syndromes, and Solutions.” American Journal of Family Therapy 35, no. 1 (January 2007): 21-40. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost

[6] Miller, Laurence. “Police Families: Stresses, Syndromes, and Solutions.” American Journal of Family Therapy 35, no. 1 (January 2007): 21-40. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost

[7] Miller, Laurence. “Police Families: Stresses, Syndromes, and Solutions.” American Journal of Family Therapy 35, no. 1 (January 2007): 21-40. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost

[8] Miller, Laurence. “Police Families: Stresses, Syndromes, and Solutions.” American Journal of Family Therapy 35, no. 1 (January 2007): 21-40. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost

[9] Arter, Michael L. “Stress and Deviance in Policing.” Deviant Behavior 29, no. 1 (January 2008): 43-69. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost.

Bibliography

1. Arter, Michael L. “Stress and Deviance in Policing.” Deviant Behavior 29, no. 1 (January 2008): 43-69. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost.

2. Miller, Laurence. “Police Families: Stresses, Syndromes, and Solutions.” American Journal of Family Therapy 35, no. 1 (January 2007): 21-40. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost.