Workplace Violence Against Police Officers and The Effect of Workplace Violence on Mental Health
Salih Dursun, Sevinc Serpil Aytac
3491
ABSTRACT
Aim:
The aim of the research is to reveal the prevalence
of violence against police officers and to examine the effect of being
subjected to violence on their mental health.
Methods:
The sample of the research consists of 339 police
officers working in different duty areas. Questionnaire technique was used to
collect data in the study. The questionnaire form consists of two parts. In the
first part of the questionnaire, there are questions to determine the
demographic characteristics of the participants (age, gender, marital status,
education level, working year, etc.). In the second part of the questionnaire,
there are questions to measure workplace violence and the
Depression-Anxiety-Stress Scale. SPSS
23.0 package program was used in the analysis of the research data. Frequency
distribution, descriptive statistics and t-test were used in the analysis of
the data.
Results:
In the current study, it has been determined that
39.2% of police officers have been exposed to at least one type of workplace
violence in the last 1 year. It was observed that the most common type of
violence was verbal violence (28.9%). The results show that exposure to
workplace violence negatively affects the stress and depression levels of
police officers.
Conclusion: Research
results show that workplace violence is an important risk factor for police
officers. Being exposed to violence also negatively affects the mental health
of police officers. These results show the importance of implementing policies
to prevent violence against police officers.
Keywords: Police
Officers, Workplace Violence, Stress,
Depression And Anxiety