Burnout, job stress and violent behaviour among Dutch police officers

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.