Law enforcement stressors - a meta analytical study

Police work is often considered to be a highly stressful occupation. Law enforcement occupations have traditionally been dominated by males. But there has been a vast increase in the number of women entering in the law enforcement occupations. It is possible female police officers are subject to more or different sources of stress from their occupation, and have very different reactions. The present study, reviews 20 studies on stressors for law enforcement officers. Stressors which are unique to female law enforcement officers are identified. These factors are compared with stressors of male law enforcement officers. Some shared factors of stress by male and female law enforcement officers are also identified. The stressors are categorized as individual, familial, organizational, operational and social stressors. The result shows that gender differences exist in all five categories of stressors. Differences are mainly found in familial and organizational stressors.