NCJ Number
130311
Journal
Police Studies Volume: 14 Issue: 1 Dated: (Spring 1991) Pages: 12-16
Date Published
1991
Length
5 pages
Annotation
A questionnaire was administered to 457 male and 139 female police officers, employed in two major Eastern cities since 1970, to determine the gender differences in job burnout. The questionnaire reflected input from an advisory panel, police ride-along experiences, workshops, formal and informal interactions with ethnic minority and gender-based police organizations, interviews with officers and their spouses, and pretesting in rural and urban areas.
Abstract
Indicators of Internal Burnout were feelings of being emotionally depleted by the job, while External Burnout items reflected feelings of being emotionally hardened by the job and lacking compassion for citizens. The results indicated that, while both male and female officers were affected by burnout, females were associated with higher levels of emotional burnout, while males showed higher levels of depersonalizing citizens. The study also controlled for stress variations across tenure levels. Findings suggest that gender differences are a result of socialization rather than the relative newcomer status of women police officers. 2 tables and 12 references (Author abstract modified)