Cross, C. L., & Ashley, L. (2004).

Police trauma and addiction: Coping with the dangers of the

job. FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, 73(10), 24-32
The article Police trauma and addiction evaluates the effects that post-traumatic stress has
on local law enforcement. Due to the highly stressful work environment that they are frequently
exposed to, can result in police officers developing PTSD because of the emotional, physical and
psychological impacts. Police officers that have trouble coping with daily traumatic events often
turn to drugs and alcohol later becoming an addiction. Post-traumatic stress prevention programs
have been implemented in order to prevent officers from developing PTSD but if officers have
already develop some form of post-traumatic stress they can attend these programs to gain proper
coping mechanisms.
Scholarly research had been done in order to link trauma and substance abuse. Cross and
Aschley have gathered information pertaining to officers using drugs and alcohol to cope with
the stress that comes with being in law enforcement. The use of cause and effect is presented
throughout the article. The authors also gave examples on coping methods commonly used by
officers and how they can affect not only their profession but their social life as well. The authors
express how the tough guy persona plays a major role in officers admitting that they have an
addiction due to the development of PTSD.
Hyland, P., Boduszek, D., Shevlin, M., & Adamson, G. (2012). Investigating the latent
structure of the theory of planned behavior and its effectiveness in explaining intentions to
participate in counseling among a sample of police officers. Journal of Police and Criminal
Psychology, 27(2), 129-140.

In this article the authors conducted a study using the Theory of Planned Behavior. The
two main objectives while conducting the study were whether the Theory of Planned Behavior is
more economically friendly by a three factor or four factor model. Secondly, to determine the
effectiveness of the Theory of Planned Behavior to predict the officers counseling intentions. In
the study participants were asked to fill out a self-report along with a survey in fifteen minutes.
Within the survey they were asked questions based on a scenario depicting personality changes
after witnessing a traumatic experience.
To ensure creditability and accuracy the authors received Institutional Review Board
approval. They also began with four hundred volunteers but only kept two hundred and fifty-nine
participants for the final analysis. Out of the two hundred and fifty-nine participants, a hundred
and seventy-one were male along with eighty- eight female. They also took into consideration
theyre personal life things, such as living environment, age and marital status, length of service
and area stationed. As a result they found the four factor model to be more efficient and the
strongest association with intentions was self-efficacy.
Maia, D. B., Marmar, C. R., Metzler, T., Nbrega, A., Berger, W., Mendlowicz, M. V., ...
& Figueira, I. (2007). Post-traumatic stress symptoms in an elite unit of Brazilian police officers:
prevalence and impact on psychosocial functioning and on physical and mental health. Journal
of affective disorders, 97(1), 241-245.
In this study the authors had two objectives; first to determine the importance of posttraumatic, secondly to compare groups diagnosed with post-traumatic stress and without. The
focus group was a specially trained unit in the Brazilian police force that is only deployed in
critical situations. Volunteers had to feel out a questionnaire designed by the authors that covered

demographic variables as well as health services along with physical and mental health. Results
in the study vary from treatments to regards of health.
The study the authors conducted was thorough however, I felt the only major flaw was
that only men were studied. The results showed the different groups of no PTSD, partial PTSD
and full PTSD. One of the major findings of the study was that there was little to know
difference in the two groups of no PTSD and partial PTSD however, a significance difference
between full PTSD and no PTSD. For example one of the questions asked resulted with no
PTSD at 5.2 percent and full PTSD at 35.7 percent for suicidal thoughts. Another shocking
finding was full PTSD regard for health was at six percent while the other two groups were
roughly sixty percent.
Plaxton-Hennings, C. (2004). Law enforcement organizational behavior and the
occurrence of post-traumatic stress symptomology in law enforcement personnel following a
critical incident. Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, 19(2), 53-63
This article unlike the others focus on the behavior after an officer went through a crucial
incident such as wounding or killing a suspect or being wounded themselves. They also had three
previous studies to compare and help guide their own. The reason they decided to only focus on
shootings was because officers ranked that as their most stressful event. As a result they found
that the officers would focus more on emotional coping than problem coping. Meaning that the
officers would rather drink alcohol over seeking counseling for help.
Another difference between this study and others is the focus group consisted of people
that experienced a shooting in the last twenty years. The survey was conducted in an interview
style consisting sixteen open ended questions. The entire process was strictly voluntary and took

roughly forty-five minutes. Although I feel that an interview setting would discourage the
participants to fully and truthfully answer the questions and give a false result. However,
participants felt that there was a lack of help from peers in the work environment and therefore,
turned to negative forms of coping. Meaning they would be open to others that willing to help.
Regehr, C., & Hill, J. (2001). Evaluating the efficacy of crisis debriefing groups. Social
Work with Groups, 23(3), 69-79.
The article was based on a study done on the effectiveness of debriefing groups. The two
different groups that were surveyed were professional firefighters and volunteer firefighters.
However, the two groups showed no difference and the therefor the authors decided to combine
the results and only 85 percent of the groups actually completed the study.
The study used a questionnaire to collect all the information used in the result. The
questionnaire covered demographic variables such as, age, gender, marital status, and years of
work. The study also contained the youngest members of the group ranging from sixteen to
sixty-six in age. To evaluate the results the authors used two different scales the first one being
the Beck Depression Inventory along with the impact of events scale. The Beck Depression
Inventory is a self-report scale to assess things such as motivation cognitive and components of
depression. Whereas the impact of events scale measures the experience of post-traumatic stress.
As a result they found that all the participants that experiences a stressful event have found
attending a debriefing group helps reduce their stress levels.
Robinson, H. M., Sigman, M. R., & Wilson, J. P. (1997). Duty-related stressors and
PTSD symptoms in suburban police officers. Psychological reports, 81(3), 835-845.

This study thoroughly examined symptoms as well as stress caused by everyday line of
work. One hundred suburban police officers were surveyed and asked about demographic
information along with duty related stressors. A post-traumatic stress prevention program named
Critical Incident Stress Debriefing was also measured based on the officers answers on the
questionnaire. The results of the survey showed significant similarities between duty-related
stressors, symptoms and somatization. The frequent exposure to death and life threat were the
main factors for a diagnosis to post-traumatic stress.
The authors gathered a lot of information based on results of the questionnaire taking by
local law enforcement. Highly stressful events can cause a police officer to develop PTSD. This
study examines many events that law enforcement are exposed to, therefore the encouragement
of the stress debriefing programs. The comparison between this research and the previous studies
are explained throughout the article.
Stephens, C., & Miller, I. (1998). Traumatic experiences and post-traumatic stress
disorder in the New Zealand police. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies &
Management, 21(1), 178-191
The article is based off of several different studies, these studies show examples of how
PTSD is an increasing risk in the New Zealand police force and how officers rarely seek
treatment. However, the authors conduct their own study showing the relationship between
health and stress outcomes with PTSD. The way the survey was conducted they sent out a
questionnaire to one thousand police officers working in the New Zealand police force.
However, only fifty-two percent of the officers filled out the survey.

With five hundred and twenty-seven officers to use for the study, they found that there
was no significant difference between demographic variables such as age, gender and rank.
However, the only significant difference found was the levels of educational qualifications.
Another finding within the study was officers the experienced multiple stressful situations
showed higher levels of PTSD but both incidents were not work related. The highest rated of
PTSD were among those who suffered a natural disaster such as an earthquake and a violent
scenario. Another interesting finding that the study had was that over seventy percent of the
officers involved did not want to seek help or counseling.