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  • Essay / Understanding the impact of police subculture and occupational stressors on the decision-making capabilities of American law enforcement

    The purpose of this research proposal is to understand how police subculture and professional stressors impact the decision-making capabilities of law enforcement in the field. Public opinion often attributes the frequent murders of young minority men to racism and racial profiling alone. Research suggests that being a police officer is extremely stressful and learning to cope with traumatic situations can be difficult. Police subculture refers to the specific set of “beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors exhibited by law enforcement” (Malmin 2012). A specific understanding of police subculture is the mentality that individual strength is preferable to expressing fears or psychological hurts and asking for help. Therefore, when faced with professional stressors, such as daily evaluations from novice officers, without the opportunity to seek advice from seasoned officers on how to handle immense stress, officers learn to cope. cope incorrectly and make mistakes due to increasing levels of anxiety at work. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay This research will help both scholars and the community at large develop a better intellectual understanding of the stress officers experience. With a better intellectual understanding of how stress affects officers differently than other professions, policymakers will be able to address the responsibility of every police department and police chief to care for their officers, not just physically but also psychologically. Specifically, this research will build on the limited research regarding police officers and post-traumatic stress disorder. According to Mark Malmin, a former San Francisco police officer, detective, hostage negotiator, narcotics investigator and bailiff, police officers are taught to act as if they can handle anything. There is an emphasis on individual strength and independence in police training, which leads to a facade of invincibility throughout a department. Officers are constantly exposed to danger, but must continue to show compassion and kindness to victims of crime. They must understand the complexity and legality of suicide and often must make split-second decisions that result in death or injury. According to Malmin, the stressors police officers face can be debilitating and devastating, but the resources available to police officers to help them develop stress coping techniques are limited. The police subculture rejects the inevitable need for assistance, focusing solely on survival, ignoring the importance of mental well-being in such a demanding profession. American police departments arguably have the best tactical and operational skills training programs in the world. Yet they fail to train officers to deal with traumatic events, perhaps because they do not understand the impact of trauma and stress on an individual. The police subculture is indoctrinated from the beginning of a police officer's career. Veteran officers provide on-the-job training for police officers who recently graduated from the Police Academy. Teachers..