Waugh's Study

Although many believe that law enforcement agents are usually men and women that are emotionless individuals that do not sympathize and feel what the ‘wrongly’ accused victims have felt, yet they have not seen the silent side of the effects being in the force against crime, leaving a deep impact in officers and such. PTSD in the body of police officers isn’t widely known, but it is a tolling factor in their career. This is a problem that is slowly taking surge, much like a tumor or a virus.

Researchers are sometimes using Quantitative and Qualitative research methodologies interchangeably, or all three of the methodologies including the mixed approach, Creswell (2009). However, the most distinctive differences between the two is the application used, or the design, using words for qualitative analysis, and

Hypothesis 1: Metro Police experience vicarious trauma through exposure to traumatic situations in their line of work.

Stress in policing can be seen in all ranks and police departments across the country. The job of a police officer cannot compare to any job in the civilian sector. Police officers train to deal with the bad scenarios, but even with all the preparations in place things can go wrong. Police officers are the first responders for criminal activity and are the first ones to see human suffering. From dealing with murders, robberies, rape, or child abuse police officers must deal with the situation at hand in a professional manner. This can lead to stress because not everyone reacts the same to these situations. Some police officers can easily deal with a dead body, whereas others are traumatized for life after viewing a corpse. Another stress factor is

Since that time, there have been multiple studies in understanding the neurobiology of trauma on victims of violent crime and the concept of trauma informed investigations was born. Whenever a crime is committed, law enforcement officers are typically the first to arrive on the scene and to interact with victims. As a result, police officers have more contact with crime victims in the immediate aftermath of a crime than any other criminal justice professional. This makes their role

Emergency workers are trained to manage emergency situations and it is expected as part of the job role that they will encounter death and serious injury (Iranmanesh, Tirgari & Bardsiri 2013,

The type of research I will be conducting is explanatory cases because there little or no understanding. Although research has been close to this subject nothing exact. I will use exploratory literature research to gain/discover insights about this situation. When the goal of the literature is to precisely formulate problems, clear concepts, gain insights, eliminate impractical ideas and form hypotheses then exploratory research is used.

Stress is a common factor among law enforcement. Although the men and women who work in law enforcement are expected to handle extreme circumstances while being on the job many are affected. Contributing influences such as violence, cruelty, and killing someone in the line of duty are some of the situations faced on a routine basis. It is not customary for people to witness and be involved in traumatic violence on a frequent basis.

Individuals in public safety, and specifically those employed in the field of law enforcement face a higher risk of experiencing traumatic events or critical incidents than the average citizen (Lansing, Amen, Hanks, & Rudy, 2005). The exposure to these traumatic events sometimes results in the development of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); onset of PTSD is sometimes delayed and only manifests after exposure to multiple traumatic events (Lansing et al., 2005). Post-traumatic stress disorder is classified as an anxiety disorder, development of which is generally in response to exceptionally terrifying events that often are life threatening to the person or other people, or entail the risk of serious bodily injury (McNally, 2006; Ramage

If we take a quick overview of police work and look at the research of what the biggest stressors are, we find:

Weaver-Hightower (2014a), indicated that topical research “offers insights on the nature and severity of the problem providing you with potential arguments for the study's significance”, while also allowing you to “identify gaps in the literature that is not yet known about

Explanatory research is done to explain why things are happening. This is very important in the Criminal Justice field because if it’s impossible to understand why someone is doing something, it will be very difficult to stop it. This is very relevant to researching because of social problems. By understanding and explaining social problems perhaps they can be prevented in the future. An example of explanatory research from Dantzker and Hunter’s book is why particular people become serial killers. (2016) Gathering this important research that gives answers can help find ways to stop or try to prevent it. The methodology of explanatory research would be researching and gathering evidence then further analyzing that evidence as to why a specific event or issue occurs in Criminal Justice. Explanatory research is a very important part of all Criminal Justice research conducted, because if it’s not understood why something is happening there is a very small chance that it’s possible to come up with a way to stop

Mixed methods researchers advance the weight or priority to the collection of quantitative and qualitative data. Three options are available to the researcher for prioritizing data:

When both research designs are used together, more information can be gathered. Mixed methodology uses the numerical portion of the quantitative study design in combination with the descriptive aspect of the qualitative study. There are many similarities between these two designs, which make them compatible with each other.

Quantitative research is considered to be the use of numbers. In the use of a quantitative study, the researcher test objective theories by examining the conjunction among variables. The variables used can be measured on instruments, so that numbered data can be used and analyzed (Creswell, 2008). Qualitative research is mainly used to explore and understand human or social problems. The process of qualitative studies includes questions and procedures; and the data is collected byway of participant’s settings. It allows the researcher to study an issue in great detail and depth, as well as not allowing data collection to be constrained by predetermined data. Mixed methods research combines quantitative and qualitative methods and it involves philosophical assumptions. This form of study includes collecting and analyzing data from a quantitative and qualitative perspective. It is believed that mixed methods research is a great method for practicing researchers who would like to bridge the schism between quantitative and qualitative research (Onwuegbuzie & Leech, 2004a). Even though these methods are different, they all involve philosophical assumptions and distinct methods or procedures (Cresswell, 2009).