Police Trauma: Psychological Aftermath of Civilian Combat. - Review - book review

Police Trauma: Psychological Aftermath of Civilian Combat edited by John M. Violanti and Douglas Paton, Charles C. Thomas, LTD., Springfield, Illinois, 1999.

Police Trauma offers comprehensive research for all law enforcement psychologists and consulting clinical psychologists by providing the conditions and precipitants of trauma stress among law enforcement. Police executives, incident commanders, line officers, policy writers, and law enforcement family members also will find this book beneficial. Police Trauma may help prevent or minimize trauma stress by providing information on how to better deal with traumatic experiences and establish an improved support system for officers.

The topics discussed in this book suggest future policy and procedures for the conceptualization, intervention, recovery, and immediate and extended treatment of psychological trauma in policing. Also covered are suggestions for both department and officer self-assessment.

The authors have grouped the chapters of the book into three sections: conceptual and methodological issues, special police groups, and recovery and treatment. Police Trauma begins with a thorough assessment of the understanding of psychological trauma involving duty-related, patrol-response trauma. The book offers an assessment test, which includes 66 characteristics to help officers understand overall risks to themselves and others, and offers guidance on how to analyze the test results for a better understanding of how trauma can affect officers. This chapter also introduces a police compassion fatigue model in which authors describe the relationship between an officer's psychological trauma, how they cope with the trauma, and their role in the department and personal family after exposure.

In another section, Police Trauma assesses police groups, such as the South African Police's exposure to violence. Response members of high-profile incidents also were assessed for post-intervention strategies concerning exposure to the violence and coping and recovery successes. Also in this section, the authors analyze and present organizational activities that contribute to the incident commander's emotional recovery from violence and trauma.

Police Trauma reviews a successful military model and its application to law enforcement operations based on the organizational similarities of chain of command, training, leadership, response, and commitment to control violence resulting in trauma aftermath. The military model contained three prevention phases: a primary phase, concerning prior preparation and training for trauma-type incidents; a secondary phase focusing on the participants during and immediately after a traumatic event; and the last phase addressing considerations in limiting long-term effects of trauma and how to properly prepare, respond, and recover through a shared and well-documented after-action report.

Police Trauma provides a tremendous research effort on trauma by experts directly connected to the field of law enforcement and serves as an invaluable asset for all levels and jurisdiction of the law enforcement community, including those in private industry. It presents an understanding of why police respond to trauma the way they do and how they can recover successfully.

The authors have gathered information on trauma research from professionals associated with law enforcement. These contributions provide the reader with different perspectives on police trauma and its aftermath and identify what is known, as well as what is not known, on this complex issue. Police Trauma serves as an excellent resource for those individuals managing law enforcement psychological stress and trauma.

COPYRIGHT 2001 Federal Bureau of Investigation
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group