NCJ Number
101311
Journal
International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology Volume: 30 Issue: 1 Dated: (1986) Pages: 53-58
Date Published
1986
Length
6 pages
Annotation
Counselors for police officers who have been involved in shootings must focus on the event's stimulation of earlier traumas in the officer's life so as to deal with broader developmental conflicts.
Abstract
When an officer shoots a person, ideas, fantasies, and concerns from the past re-emerge into consciousness. These may be related to childhood experiences, military incidents, and traumatic events such as automobile accidents. This delayed stress reaction may involve sleep disturbance, flashbacks, emotional isolation, difficulty in maintaining relationships, repression, suicidal thoughts, unknown anxieties, unexplained fears, alienation, and self-criticism. Clinical examples from the author's own practice relate police shootings to officers' hostility toward a parent, Vietnam experiences, and family conflicts. Since the shooting crisis reactivates preexisting psychological problems in an officer's personality, the counselor must be sensitive to these problems and address them in therapy. Failure to deal with these preexisting conflicts may result in long-term psychological disability. Therapy for these broader conflicts can result in the officer's being emotionally healthier than before the shooting incident. 8 references.