Deck 8: The Police Culture and Work Stress

Question 1

Which of the following is true about the police culture?

A) The police culture isn't viewed negatively.
B) The organizational culture can have many positive effects and actually reduce anxiety.
C) Regardless of the blue wall of silence, police officers are always held accountable for misconduct.
D) Most people disagree that the organizational culture of a police department affects the behavior of the officers.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Which of the following would NOT describe police subculture?

A) shared values, attitudes, and norms created within the occupational and organizational environment of policing
B) a framework of acceptable behaviors for police officers that dictates how to interact with the public
C) a set of informal norms based on tradition and passed on generation to generation, that influence police behavior and the perception of the public by the police
D) behaviors that are understood to be acceptable and sanctioned within the brotherhood of fellow police

Answer 2

B

Question 3

A physical attack intended to rectify what police interpret as a personal insult is also known as ______.

A) vigilantism
B) street justice
C) revenge
D) training

Answer 3

B

Question 4

In most cases, officers are influenced by formal organizational structures and expressed organizational values and also by ______.

A) the worst criminals in society
B) victims who become revictimized through the criminal justice system
C) expectations of other police officers that are passed along through the organizational structure
D) politicians, attorneys, and judges

Question 5

Which of the following would NOT be considered an artifact of policing?

A) handcuffs
B) jargon
C) uniform
D) posttraumatic stress disorder

Question 6

Police recruits quickly learn police jargon, how to address superiors, how to communicate on the radio, and a writing style for police reports. These are all examples of police ______.

A) blue wall of silence
B) culture
C) subculture
D) artifacts

Question 7

Which of the following mantras would best represent the us-versus-them mentality held by the police in terms of how they view the public?

A) Don't tell anyone more than they have to know.
B) Quid pro quo at every opportunity.
C) Protect the community above all else.
D) The more police administrators and precincts involved, the better.

Question 8

If you were a captain, which of the following scenes that your officers could respond to would give you the greatest concern for risk of suicide?

A) mass casualty
B) domestic dispute
C) traffic accident with a fatality
D) suicide of another officer

Question 9

Which would most likely be experienced by an officer working the night shift in a sparsely populated rural suburb?

A) hypostress
B) hyperstress
C) role conflict
D) role ambiguity

Question 10

Which of the following traits would NOT be associated with police cynicism?

A) contempt
B) distrust
C) humility
D) suspiciousness

Question 11

Which of the following is true regarding the expectations of persons who marry a police officer?

A) They must be police officers themselves.
B) They are expected to adhere to the norms of the subculture.
C) They must not be police officers themselves.
D) There are no expectations regarding persons who marry a police officer.

Question 12

Deeply held beliefs that guide the behaviors of an organization are known as organizational ______.

A) assumptions
B) attitudes
C) mantras
D) traditions

Question 13

Culture consists of all but which of the following?

A) hierarchy
B) expectations
C) assumptions
D) beliefs

Question 14

Which of the following is the leading cause of death among officers?

A) firearms-related incidents
B) traffic-related incidents
C) drug-related incidents
D) hostage situations

Question 15

Which of the following contributes to the subculture that stresses bravery, which is ultimately related to the perceived as well as actual dangers of policing?

A) lack of breaks between the rash of calls and assignments
B) potential for becoming a victim of a violent encounter
C) need for praise from other officers
D) legitimate use of technology to accomplish the police mandate

Question 16

Which term refers to the protective, supportive, and shared attitudes, values, understandings, and views of the world associated with the police society?

A) blue street
B) blue wall
C) blue line
D) wall of silence

Question 17

Which of the following best articulates the mantra perpetuated by the police subculture regarding how to handle job-related stress?

A) Take care of yourself so that you can take better care of others.
B) Real police officers can handle their own problems without the need for shrinks.
C) That's what partners are for.
D) That's what spouses are for.

Question 18

Which of the following is generally regarded as the most important reason to implement programs to help officers address job-related stress?

A) officer-involved shootings
B) terrorism threats
C) mass casualty events
D) officer suicide

Question 19

Which of the following would NOT be associated with the "six normative orders" within policing?

A) machismo
B) competence
C) morality
D) brevity

Question 20

Which of the following describes the best unilateral formula that departments should implement to assist their officers with job-related stress reduction?

A) suggested group therapy among officers working the same shifts in the same departments
B) mandatory biannual psychological evaluations
C) mandatory monthly counseling for officers
D) There is no exact formula for stress reduction for every single individual.

Question 21

The musty smell characteristic of a station house, the rigid feel of dress blues, and the sound of bagpipes playing at an officer's funeral are all notable ______ of police culture.

A) souvenirs
B) highlights
C) artifacts
D) memories

Question 22

The police subculture creates a set of truths officers are expected to subscribe to. Which of the following is one of them?

A) Patrol work is for those who are smart enough to realize its advantages and not transfer to more stressful assignments.
B) The police are the only real crime fighters.
C) Policing your own colleagues counts more than anything else.
D) It is possible to win the war on crime without bending the rules.

Question 23

Which individual is responsible for working with a new police officer during the officer's initial time out on the street?

A) shift sergeant
B) field training officer
C) lieutenant
D) captain

Question 24

Officers assigned to ______ shifts experience lower amounts of stress, according to research presented in the text.

A) day
B) rotating
C) graveyard
D) evening

Question 25

What enables police to decide when to enforce the law and when to allow infractions to go without consequence?

A) deterrence
B) discretion
C) deviance
D) detriment

Question 26

Which of the following is considered a source of police stress?

A) task demands
B) interpersonal demands
C) physical demands
D) all of these

Question 27

The police ______ can be described as having bravery, autonomy, and secrecy.

A) element
B) ethereal
C) ethos
D) epiphany

Question 28

What is one method used by the San Jose Police Department to deal with stress attributed to dealing with critical incidents?

A) traumatic incident response team
B) independent police review authority
C) critical incident stress debriefing team
D) citizen oversight board

Question 29

A police officer sees two people walking in a quiet, residential neighborhood at 3 a.m. Which of the following terms describes how the police officer may view the pair?

A) symbolic assailants
B) potential fatalities
C) organizational assumptions
D) symbolic offenders

Question 30

Which of the following social changes within police departments brings new challenges to police subculture?

A) generational changes
B) increased diversity
C) technological advances
D) all of these

Question 31

An officer is equipped with a uniform, a firearm, a Taser, handcuffs, a radio, and access to backup officers as needed to ensure that his or her ______ is unmistakable.

A) presence
B) authority
C) location
D) jurisdiction

Question 32

The inability to find a way to relieve stress may lead to ______.

A) shift changes
B) burnout
C) rank changes
D) lateral movement within the force

Question 33

A ______ is an officer who does not take advantage of the full time allocated for a given task.

A) rate buster
B) grass eater
C) symbolic assailant
D) meat eater

Question 34

Police officers have a tendency to generalize the public into one of three types. Which of the following is NOT one of those types?

A) suspicious persons
B) assholes
C) know-nothings
D) public nuisances

Question 35

Which of the following is NOT a category of stressors that is known to affect police officers?

A) internal
B) external
C) team
D) individual

Question 36

Which term is used to refer to a police officer's ability to withstand interaction with an aggressive and/or combative person and not physically engage unless it becomes necessary to restrain the person?

A) desensitization
B) devaluation
C) degradation
D) destabilization

Question 37

An officer who routinely patrols the same streets just in time for the city street sweeping ordinances to go into effect so that she can write an excessive number of parking tickets might be categorized as which of the four working personalities of police officers?

A) an enforcer
B) an idealist
C) a realist
D) an optimist

Question 38

Which stage of cynicism is the most accepting of the flawed system and most notably passive and detached?

A) stage one
B) stage two
C) stage three
D) stage four

Question 39

Which term is used to describe the control an officer is expected to exert over his or her emotions while in the public view?

A) game face
B) mean mug
C) courtroom face
D) poker face

Question 40

Although ______ can help officers maintain control in combative situations, it can have a negative effect on an officer's professional performance.

A) prejudice
B) desensitization
C) stress
D) cynicism

Question 41

A study conducted on the Internal Affairs Division of the Houston Police Department cited that more than 50% of complaint investigations were initiated by internal officers as opposed to the general public. This suggests that ______.

A) the blue wall or code of silence is not as prevalent as the media portray it to be
B) the general public does not care about officer misconduct
C) officers should adopt a "lay low" attitude to cope with organizational stress
D) police officers generally have a distrust of human behavior and motives, even among their peers

Question 42

For police, increasing contact with ______ under positive circumstances could help alleviate stress.

A) their immediate supervisor
B) service animals
C) law-abiding citizens
D) incarcerated individuals

Question 43

Which of the following does NOT accurately describe the police subculture known as the blue wall?

A) shared beliefs regarding world views
B) protective nature toward other officers
C) openness to public inquiries regarding fellow officers' conduct
D) social isolation from non-police members of society

Question 44

______ is perhaps one of the most significant and urgent reasons to address job stress.

A) The harmful police subculture
B) Work-life balance
C) Police misconduct
D) Police officer suicide

Question 45

A symbolic assailant is a term that refers to_______.

A) an officer viewing all contacts with citizens as potentially dangerous
B) a person who commits a crime as a symbol of his or her own political beliefs
C) an officer viewing contacts with citizens as initially safe until other evidence to the contrary shows itself
D) an offender who is covered in tattoos

Question 46

If you were a police officer and learned that you lacked sufficient college education to be eligible to take the captain's exam, this would be categorized as a(n) ______ stressor.

A) performance
B) individual
C) external
D) internal

Question 47

At the end of working four consecutive 12-hour shifts with very few calls for service, an officer may find herself in a state of ______.

A) hyperstress
B) hypostress
C) insomnia
D) none of these

Question 48

The term given for what happens to an officer who experiences an extreme amount of stress for an exceedingly long time is ______.

A) general adaptation syndrome
B) generalized depressive disorder
C) major depressive disorder
D) anxiety

Question 49

Which of the following makes women officers in particular much more susceptible to police suicide than male police officers?

A) working in a male-dominated organization
B) cynicism associated with the police culture
C) often being the first officer to report to the scene of a suicide
D) role conflict between what is expected of them and what is feasible to accomplish

Question 50

Which of the following is NOT a recommendation by the International Association of the Chiefs of Police for reducing the risk of suicide among police officers?

A) invest in agency-wide training in mental health awareness and stress management
B) recruit and hire resilient officers who have a proven commitment to public service and stress management skills
C) take a vote on what the standardized protocol should be for how police suicides should be handled
D) begin mental wellness training at the academy and continue the training throughout officers' careers

Question 51

Which of the following is a primary predictor of stress in employees?

A) work assignment
B) management/leadership styles
C) pay rate
D) turnover rate

Question 52

One lesson rarely taught in the academy but learned very quickly by new officers is that members of the community often ______ their assistance.

A) resent
B) reciprocate
C) remember
D) embrace

Question 53

An officer's definition of a suspicious person may be rooted in which of the following?

A) appearance of person
B) time and place
C) demeanor
D) all of these

Question 54

All of the following are considered new sources of stress EXCEPT for ______.

A) reduced salary raises
B) loss of morale due to layoffs
C) increased scrutiny by the media
D) hiring less educated managers

Question 55

Which of the following would NOT be considered a stressor that selectively interacts with an officer's life?

A) social isolation stressors
B) organizational stressors
C) philosophical stressors
D) individual stressors

Question 56

The blue wall refers to a closed police society, commonly referred to as a brotherhood, that has attributes of protection, support, and shared attitudes and values.

Question 57

Isolation from the public can act as both a cause of job stress for police officers and a result of it.

Question 58

The public generally praises the blue wall of silence for embracing a sense of brotherhood among officers.

Question 59

A prominent feature of police culture is a strong sense of connection between the police and the community.

Question 60

Police officers are trained to be suspicious of most, if not all, people they encounter.

Question 61

The constant concern over the potential for life-threatening danger in any and every situation is not necessarily a cause of police stress and burnout.

Question 62

Given the high amount of stress experienced by police officers, to prevent burnout they are encouraged to discuss amongst one another the emotional toll the job takes on them.

Question 63

Cynicism in policing involves an overall lack of faith in people and loss of enthusiasm toward police work in general.

Question 64

Domestic violence committed against intimate partners occurs more frequently among police officers than among couples not involved in law enforcement.

Question 65

Police administrators can also be perceived as outsiders to police officers as their position may lead them to hold unrealistic expectations of officers.

Question 66

The police subculture, in some cases, has established standards of acceptable performance. Fellow officers appreciate when other officers exceed these standards because it makes them look more efficient.

Question 67

As a result of recent criticism of police by citizens, the use of stereotypes has been virtually eliminated among police officers.

Question 68

In police work, stress is a great asset in managing legitimate emergencies and achieving peak performance, but it can also be extremely debilitating, leading to stress-related illnesses.

Question 69

The erosion of public trust in the police does not have any effects on the ability of the police to do their job.

Question 70

Too little physical and mental activity causes a state of hyperstress, which may also be associated with working a shift with no calls.

Question 71

Research suggests that, although prejudice seems to be more common among those with authoritarian traits, police officers are no more authoritarian or prejudiced than those in other occupations.

Question 72

Crime-fighting activities are exaggerated in television shows and movies.

Question 73

Role conflict is a result of consistent and compatible expectations for a police officer's job.

Question 74

Police officers have much greater exposure to the act of suicide than does the greater population.

Question 75

Role ambiguity is the confusion a person experiences related to the expectations of others.

Question 76

Not all occupations involve stress, but stress is always harmful when it is present.

Question 77

Police officers with greater seniority are less likely to report when they see their fellow officers committing unethical acts, compared to newer police officers, because the latter have been less socialized into the police subculture.

Question 78

The "normative orders of policing"-law, bureaucratic control, adventure or machismo, safety, competence, and morality-may function to limit certain actions of police officers.

Question 79

One tenet of the police subculture is that it is simply impossible to win the war on crime without bending the rules.

Question 80

The tension experienced between police officers and police administrators is a direct result of the discrepancy between what the police officers are instructed to do versus what the community expects them to do.