Trauma and coping in police officers who investigate rape and child abuse
Online
18th Mar 2025 to 18th Mar 2025
Tue, 18 Mar 2025 14:30 – 15:30 GMT
The Canterbury Centre for Policing Research at Canterbury Christ Church University and the Centre for Global City Policing at UCL present:
A study of trauma and coping in police officers who investigate rape and child abuse in London
Dr Jim Foley, retired Det. Supt. Metropolitan Police Service
The presentation relates to a grounded theory study of police officer coping, specifically in officers who investigate rape and child abuse.
In the study presented, the researcher sought to understand how this particular ‘high risk’ group of officers cope with both the organisational and occupational stressors they are exposed to, as well as which strategies that help them to ‘get up in the morning’.
Data were collected through 23 in depth, face to face semi-structured interviews, with Straussian grounded theory used as a framework to develop a provisional model of coping. This study highlighted that although some officers were affected by the traumatic nature of their work, most appeared to be impacted by other key risk factors including ‘burnout’, ’compassion fatigue’ and possible signs of ‘moral injury’. Protective factors were identified which included ‘being in control’, ‘organisational, social and peer support’ as well as ‘having a purpose’ all of which impacted on an officer’s ability to cope with the work they do. The present findings extend our knowledge of key concepts relating to police officer coping which may help officers working in these high-risk roles to cope with challenges they face on a daily basis.