NCJ Number
193705
Journal
Journal of Crime & Justice Volume: 24 Issue: 2 Dated: 2001 Pages: 29-57
Date Published
2001
Length
29 pages
Annotation
This study examined the relationship among occupational stress experienced by male police officers and domestic forms of violence.
Abstract
The study explored the generality of Agnew's (1992) General Strain Theory (GST). Data used in this study were taken from 596 male police officers who participated in the Police Stress and Domestic Violence in Police Families study (1997-1999), Baltimore, Maryland. The GST provides an explanatory framework that may contribute to understanding the negative effects and adverse behavioral adaptations stemming from stress experienced by law enforcement officers including, but not limited to, depression, anger, and violent behaviors. The study also used the GST framework to explain the relationships between strain, negative emotions, and law enforcement officers' involvement in domestic forms of violence. The study supported the claim that strain experienced by officers was indirectly related to domestic violence through negative effects of anger and depression. Strain and domestic violence, however, did not have a direct relationship. Social support was influential in decreasing the likelihood of negative effects regardless of the level of exposure to strain; however, the conditioning factors of social support and spirituality did not have an impact on domestic violence. Note, tables, appendixes, references