Good and Bad Stress Final - Research Paper Example

Good and Bad Stress in Criminal Justice Professions School Good and Bad Stress in Criminal Justice Professions Criminal justice professions are some of the toughest known professions in the world. The professionals assume a very important responsibility of safeguarding the rights and interests of the society and delivering justice. Owing to its tough nature, the professions of criminal justice expose the professionals to different kinds of good and bad stresses. Bad stresses far outweigh the good stresses as many good stresses lead to emotional burdens and tensions.

This is what makes working in a criminal justice profession extremely challenging and emotionally demanding. Good and Bad Stress in Criminal Justice ProfessionsProfessions related to criminal justice are enlisted among the most stressful professions. This is partly because the nature of job exposes the ones involved to all kinds of social and psychological stressors. However, stress in the professions of criminal justice differs from the stress encountered by people in other professions in that the effects of stress don’t show up immediately.

In a vast majority of cases, the stress is post-traumatic in type. The highest mean scores of the stressors are experienced by the officers who have been six and ten years of experience in the profession of criminal justice. (Violanti & Aron, 1995). This paper explores the good and bad stresses in the profession of criminal justice.Sleye (1975) has identified two kinds of stress; good stress and bad stress. Good stress is also known as eustress while another name for bad stress is distress. One of the most fundamental traits that makes the good stress experienced by officers in all professions of criminal justice in general and in police in particular different from the good stress experienced by other professionals is that in criminal justice area, it is as bad or even worse as compared to the bad stress.

This is because of the fact that the people belonging to the professions of criminal justice are authorized and empowered to provide people with justice. With power comes responsibility. This is the reason why people get higher salaries and more benefits in the professions of criminal justice. However, the same benefits and luxuries associated with these professions sometimes cause huge burden upon one’s conscience if one is not satisfied with one’s performance. “High points in life can turn into disasters.

You feel guilty, you party, you spend, you gamble, you drink, you go into more debt, and these are the times when you start looking to fool around” (O’Connor, 2010). Bad stress in the criminal justice professions occurs because of several reasons which include but are not limited to threat from a criminal, damage to life or property caused by a criminal enemy, and imbalance of work and life. The work in general is full of stress because of its rough and tough nature. In addition to that, people associated with the professions of criminal justice have frequent encounters with criminals and negative minded people which cast a negative influence upon the criminal justice professionals both psychologically and emotionally.

The influence may be indirect, but it does occur. Concluding, people in the professions of criminal justice are exposed to a lot of good and bad stresses. While these professions are generally known for their bad stresses, the good stresses can often have negative impacts upon the professionals because of the immense responsibility they assume. One tends to feel like one does not deserve the salary, promotion and increased benefits brought to one by the work if one is not satisfied with the way the job was done.

References:O’Connor, T. (2010, Aug. 28). Police stress and employee assistance programs. Retrieved from http://drtomoconnor.com/4000/4000lect05.htm. Selye, H. (1975). Stress Without Distress. New York: Lippincott.Violanti, J. & Aron, F. (1995). Police Stressors: Variations in Perceptions among Police Personnel. Journal of Criminal Justice. 23:280-291.