“To Serve and Protect Their Mental Health”: The Effects of Police Occupational Culture on Police Officers Mental Health

Authors

  • Salehah Hakik
  • Kory Langlois

Keywords:

Police culture, organisational change, PTSD, policing, traumatic policing, subculture, police occupational culture, stigma, trauma, mental illness

Abstract

This paper focuses on the connections that lie between the police occupational culture and its impact on officers’ mental health - PTSD. The main goal was to determine whether a relationship could be identified with the existing police culture and how it stigmatizes any mention of mental illness. Conducting a qualitative content analysis of government documents as well as a collection of news media articles, the study found connections are in fact prevalent and can thus be casually inferred that police culture impacts officers’ mental wellness. The lack of dialogue, and negative features of the police culture prove to be barriers that add additional stressors to an officer living with mental health related issues, such as PTSD.

Author Biographies

  • Salehah Hakik

    Salehah Hakik recently graduated and successfully obtained her Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Criminology with Co-op Distinction at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in British Columbia, Canada. Salehah received honourable recognition at the provincial level from the Association of Cooperative Education and Work Integrated Learning for her achievements as co-op student of the year. She has extensive experience working with at risk youth and families in her role as a Youth Support Worker. She is actively engaged in social justice, and human rights issues and strives to advocate for and provide voices to the voiceless within the criminal justice system. She aims to continue her passion for advocacy through a career in law as well as pursuing further research opportunities at a graduate level. Salehah can be reached at salehahhakik33@gmail.com.

  • Kory Langlois

    Kory Langlois obtained his Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Criminology with Distinction at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, in British Columbia Canada. Kory’s interests include examining the Criminal Justice System, mental health, and harm reduction. He continues to be involved in research projects centred around these interests. He seeks to continue his passion for helping those in need with further research at a graduate level, as well as a career in law. Kory can be reached at kory.langlois@gmail.com.

References

Downloads

Published

2023-02-04

Issue

Vol. 8 No. 2 (2020)

Section

Research Articles

License

Authors retain copyright in their articles and grant SALUS the right of first publication. The work is simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as appropriate credit is given to the author(s) and the journal, a link to the license is provided, and any changes made are indicated.

How to Cite

“To Serve and Protect Their Mental Health”: The Effects of Police Occupational Culture on Police Officers Mental Health. (2023). Salus Journal, 8(2), 117-151. https://journals.csu.domains/index.php/salusjournal/article/view/121