The purpose of this literature review is to inform the reader what articles I found to be most helpoful and influential in forming my paper. As a writer it has helped because the material was condensed, gave an overview and has served as the background for my paper’s research. The literature review has differed from the rest of this paper because I have not supported my own argument but instead summarized the arguments and ideas of other authors. Also, I am not focusing on all my sources in this section but only the ones that have been beneficial for writing this research paper. By the end of this paper I hope to prove my theory that male police officer have multiple personalities. I do not mean that they are crazy but instead must find a new character within themselves in different situations. Such is when they are on the job or when they are at home with their family. I hope to find that either 1) they do have multiple roles in which they must carry with them at all times or 2) they can never really disconnect from the job life to the family life. The target audiences are those in the Criminology field, Criminal Justice field, and also the Psychology field. The paper will be written in The Chicago Manual Style of writing. This is the style that is most widely accepted in the field of Criminology.
This literature review will cover the question; “Male Police Identity: What are the Multiple Personalities that Male Police Officers must have?”. I will give my four main sources. These sources will be organized from the most rece3nt research conducted to the oldest conducted.
The first piece of literature, “Stress and Deviance in Policing” gives the argument that police officer’s commit acts of deviance based on the strain theory. The author’s idea is that based on Strain theory an officer can either succumb to the pressures around them (bad) or they can overcome their environment. The author is stating that psychological stresses faced within the job can impact how they will react. The methods used in this paper were studying officers who were assigned to undercover work. It was focused on the individual not the whole group. Arter believes that there are numerous reasons that deviance occurs. His methods of research were both categorically and individually as stated before. In his research he extended the idea of General Strain Theory to encompass adults. Arter states, “this study provides insight into the nature of stress inherent within differing policing assignments and on the value of adaptive coping strategies to mediate such stress.” [1] Arter’s limitations include: having a larger sample, the fact that only under cover officers were used in the study, finally other theoretical explanations can be considered.
The second piece of literature that I found very useful was “Acute stress and performance in police recruits”. This particular piece of research was different from the others because it measured how new police recruits deal with stress and what factors play into their decision making processes during that stress. This study deals primarily with the biological and psychological factors that stress has on their performance. The methods used in this study had 84 police recruits and measured their physiological states such as heart rate (HR), blood pressure (BP) and Salivary cortisol. Psychological measures included state anxiety or STAI. The recruits were videotaped during their performance in a Firearms Training Systems (FATS) which played scenarios that could be faced on the job. Their performances were rated by experts in the field of law enforcement. Pre-test of FATS included interviews, measurement of STAI, HR, BP, and salivary cortisol. Post-test the participants were again interviewed; BP, HR, STAI and salivary cortisol were again measured. The results draw correlations between stress and performance. In conclusion of the study it showed that stress can either play a negative role causing “tunnel vision” or a positive role causing “a widening of the senses.”[2]
The third piece of literature that was important in my research was “Police Families: Stresses, Syndromes, and Solutions.” This study comes from The American Journal of Family Therapy. The main discussion of this article deals primarily with the stresses of police work on the family. I found this article crucial because I want to know how the family life is affected with police officers. The one piece of the article titled, “Divided Loyalties: Job Commitment vs. Family Commitment” highlights the different problems that the spouse may have with the officer. The author states, “Another aspect of law enforcement culture is the formation of powerful bonds of solidarity among fellow officers and boundaries around this tribal inner circle that exclude nonmembers.” [3] The author goes on to say how “The officer’s spouse may feel left out, often leading to jealousy, as the officer seems to be far more involved with his departmental clanmates than with his marital soulmate and their family.”[4] This section also talks about overprotectiveness on the officer’s behalf. Miller says that “Many officers try to create a “protective bubble” (Reese, 1987) around their families to shield them from the unsavory and distressing aspects of their work, as well as to make the officer’s home a separate haven from the pressures of the job.”[5] The final subsection that is included is called “Suspiciousness and Hypervigilance”. A very interesting point that Miller cites is, “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).”[6] This is usually carried into the home life of the officer. Many perceive this as a paranoid attitude.
The final article that I have found to be most important to me in my research is “Risk Taking and Police Pursuit.” Authors Homant, Kennedy, and Howton explore the measures of risk taking and sensation seeking with the participants being 69 American officers. The method of research was collected data from one department who also answered anymous surveys. A sensation seeking scale was used to record how likely an officer was to engage in a high speed pursuit. In the results, 75% of the “department’s officers reported that they had initiated at least one police pursuit during the previous 12 months.”[7] The main idea of this study was to see how personality traits played a role if an officer was more likely to engage in a high speed pursuit.
Bibliography
Arter, Michael L. “Stress and Deviance in Policing.” Deviant Behavior 29, no. 1 (January 2008): 43-69. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost.
Homant, Robert J., Daniel B. Kennedy, and Jimmy D. Howton. “Risk Taking and Police Pursuit.” Journal of Social Psychology 134, no. 2 (April 1994): 213-221. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost.
Miller, Laurence. 2007. “Police Families: Stresses, Syndromes, and Solutions.” American Journal of Family Therapy 35, no. 1: 21-40. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost.
Regehr, Cheryl, et al. “Acute stress and performance in police recruits.” Stress & Health: Journal of the International Society for the Investigation of Stress 24, no. 4 (October 2008): 295-303. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost.
[1] Arter, Michael L. “Stress and Deviance in Policing.” Deviant Behavior 29, no. 1 (January 2008): 43-69. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost.
[2] Regehr, Cheryl, et al. “Acute stress and performance in police recruits.” Stress & Health: Journal of the International Society for the Investigation of Stress 24, no. 4 (October 2008): 295-303. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost.
[3] Miller, Laurence. 2007. “Police Families: Stresses, Syndromes, and Solutions.” American Journal of Family Therapy 35, no. 1: 21-40. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost.
[4] Miller, Laurence. 2007. “Police Families: Stresses, Syndromes, and Solutions.” American Journal of Family Therapy 35, no. 1: 21-40. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost.
[5] Miller, Laurence. 2007. “Police Families: Stresses, Syndromes, and Solutions.” American Journal of Family Therapy 35, no. 1: 21-40. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost.
[6] Miller, Laurence. 2007. “Police Families: Stresses, Syndromes, and Solutions.” American Journal of Family Therapy 35, no. 1: 21-40. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost.
[7] Homant, Robert J., Daniel B. Kennedy, and Jimmy D. Howton. “Risk Taking and Police Pursuit.” Journal of Social Psychology 134, no. 2 (April 1994): 213-221. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost.
