Gender Stress: Differences Among Law Enforcement Officers

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February 22 2012 23:10

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Gender Stress: Differences in Critical Life Events among Law Enforcement Officers
Bradway, Jacquelyn. International Journal of Criminal Justice Sciences 4.1 (Jan-Jun 2009): 1-12.

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Abstract
This mixed-method research surveyed 271 officers in Florida to examine if a difference exists in
With the increasing number of women joining the profession, issues regarding the impact of the job, its stressors, and the effect of a male dominated subculture on women have come to the fore. Historically, research into police stress is most often descriptive or anecdotal. To adequately understand, predict, and control stress among the law enforcement officers, particularly among female officers, more empirical study is necessary. To this end, this mixed-method research surveyed 271 officers in Florida to examine if a difference exists in critical life events (sources of stress) experienced by law enforcement officers. The instrument used was a modified version of Sewell's Law Enforcement Critical Life Events Scale (LECLES) survey. The LECLES is a 144-item instrument that examines police stress based on individual events (Sewell, 1983). The sample for this study was drawn from a population of 734 municipal, county, and state law enforcement officers in the Tampa Bay, Florida, area each of whom had a minimum of 5 years of active law enforcement experience. Officers were administered a Likert-type attitudinal scale to rate their perceived stress on a scale of 0 to 5, or none to very high. Agency Profile Respondents were drawn from five agencies within the Tampa Bay each of which was accredited by either the
Sarasota County Sheriff's Office has 280 male deputies and 44 female deputies. Site 4: Tampa Police Department Tampa is the largest city in Hillsborough County and it is the third most populous city in Florida. The city is 116.1 square miles with a population of over 333,000 permanent residents. As of November 29, 2005, there were approximately 980 sworn officers, of which 110 females had a minimum of 5 years of active law enforcement experience. Two of the three assistant chiefs of police are females. Site 5: Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office Hillsborough County covers over 1,000 square miles, approximately 900 square miles of which comprise unincorporated Hillsborough County. The county has a population of over 1.1 million permanent residents, of whom 759,000 are in the unincorporated Hillsborough County area. Seasonal residents range from approximately 20,000 in midsummer to 60,000 in the winter months. The county has approximately 17 million tourists and visitors per year. Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office is the 10th largest suburban law enforcement agency, by personnel, in the nation. The agency has 103 male and 14 female supervisors and 767 male and 159 female deputies, of which 155 of the females have 5 or more years of active law enforcement experience. Demographic Profile Of the 271 respondents to the survey, 148 (55%) were male and 123 (45%) were female. The sample in this study was more heavily female oriented than the gender