Dissertation
Exploring the Relationship between Police Stress and Police Integrity
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
01/2018
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/118105
Abstract
While many studies have studied police integrity, most studies have examined the contours of police integrity across countries, whereas few studies have explored the factors that shape police integrity. Notably, there is also a profound lack of research examining the potential impact of stress on police integrity. This study expands the study of police stress and police integrity based on the context of China and examines the influence of police stress on police integrity as reflected by officers evaluating the seriousness of misconduct and their willingness to report it, as well as controlling for other factors theoretically linked to police integrity. By using a questionnaire survey, data was collected from 608 police officers receiving in-service training in a national police university of China. The findings indicated an increase in anxiety was associated with a decrease in willingness to report, and an increase in depression was associated with a decrease in evaluating the seriousness of misconduct. Regarding control variables, gender, police rank, the route joining the police, compliance with extra work requests, agency location (urban/rural), personal income, and police type were found to be significant predictors of how the officers evaluate the seriousness of misconduct and their willingness to report. In addition, this study also found that the years of experience, agency location, the route joining the police, and pressure to do extra work were significantly associated with police stress. Findings highlight the presence of a strong code of silence among Chinese officers and the influence of police stress on police integrity. To improve police integrity, Chinese police administrators should take police stress seriously and address the issue of police stress by reducing the sources of police stress, of which reducing excessive work demand is one important part, and providing programs of mental health counselling and peer assistance to alleviate the symptoms of stress.
Metrics
98 File views/ downloads
35 Record Views
Details
- Title
- Exploring the Relationship between Police Stress and Police Integrity
- Creators
- Guangzhen Wu
- Contributors
- David A. Makin (Advisor)Otwin Marenin (Committee Member)Mary K. Stohr (Committee Member)Dale W. Willits (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 159
- Identifiers
- 99900581511301842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation