Much has been published on burnout in the human services. However, despite
the extensive literature on job stress in policing, burnout in police offic
ers has rarely been studied. The present study examined stressors in police
work, focusing specifically on the lack of reciprocity that officers exper
ience in relations with civilians, colleagues and the police service. It al
so investigated the relationship between burnout and the attitudes of offic
ers towards violence, as well as to their own use of violence. Dutch police
officers (N = 358) completed a sell-report questionnaire. The results show
ed that: (1) organizational stressors were more prevalent than task-related
stressors; (2) compared to other service jobs, police officers report a pa
rticular profile on the three scales of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI)
-a relatively low level of emotional exhaustion, an average level of depers
onalization, and a high level of personal accomplishment; (3) burnout is as
sociated with a lack of reciprocity between investments and outcomes in the
relations that officers have with citizens, colleagues and their organizat
ion; and (4) burnout is positively related to attitudes towards use of viol
ence and the use of violence during the officers' duty.