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I just spent the past week at the Society for Police and Criminal Psychology meeting.\u00a0 I had been <\/span>the first executive director of the group and was the president the year before that, so I (with two others) totally ran I had also helped organize conferences at the FBI academy in the late 90\u2019s to attack some of the myths of policing such as the high suicide rate and the high rate of domestic violence.\u00a0 Hell, when I started this job, one was led to believe that the world took their most screwed up group of people and gave them a uniform, badge, and <\/span>gun<\/span>, then stressed them out to the max and said \u201cprotect the public.\u201d \u00a0 Problem was, I was seeing a lot of cops and they were pretty normal, in fact they were good friends, relatively smart and mostly family men.\u00a0 I mean, I came across some \u201cplayers,\u201d but most were doing overtime, complaining about their wives and husbands like the rest of us, and had decent relationship with their kids.\u00a0 Turns out from the FBI conferences, rates of domestic violence are not that high, in fact below the general population.\u00a0 And suicide rates are below the general population.\u00a0 We never got to finish the triad and look at divorces.\u00a0 We never had a definitive study of divorce.\u00a0 Until now!\u00a0 And the real data is not that bad!<\/span><\/p>\n First place, we are looking at literature that says the divorce rate amongst police officers is the highest of any profession.\u00a0 That the rate is reported to be 66% to 75% and that it is growing.\u00a0 More officers will end up getting divorced than ever shoot their gun and that they will be depressed and stressed considerably during that time.\u00a0 \u201cMessing with a police officer going through a divorce is like playing Russian roulette with your gun,\u201d they would say.\u00a0 Ah, the press has become so dramatic in the past few years.<\/span><\/p>\n Dr. Mike Aamodt has done the consummate research in this field in my opinion.\u00a0 He simply looked at the 2000 and 2010 census date and matched job title with divorces.\u00a0 Then he threw in a bunch of statistics and he came up with easy and simple numbers.\u00a0 Simple and easy.\u00a0 How much easier could finding a divorce rate be?<\/span><\/p>\n So, first the bad news.\u00a0 There is truth to more officers will get divorced than shoot their weapon.\u00a0 That\u2019s probably always true as police officer usually don\u2019t shoot their weapon except at the range.\u00a0 They also will be more depressed and stressed if they are going through a divorce, just as anyone.\u00a0 And there is more bad news.<\/span><\/p>\n Corrections Officers are above the general population on all measure of divorce.\u00a0 It is a sad thing, and we have to look at that as a profession, but our corrections officers are higher in rates of divorce, and in the rates of growth in the divorced population.\u00a0 It is difficult to do the statistics any other way. \u00a0They were 20% more likely to get a divorce than the general population which is rather sobering, except that number in 2000 was 30% more likely.\u00a0 So they are getting a little break and an adjustment.<\/span><\/p>\n However, police officers are 18% less likely to get a divorce or be divorced than the general population, meaning their divorce rate is lower than the general population.\u00a0 And the even better news is that the rate of decrease has gone up in the ten years between 2000 and 2010.\u00a0 The general population has increased the divorce rate by 20.5%, whereas law enforcement has increased only by 11% meaning perhaps the influx of psychologists working with law enforcement has had an effect (okay, I put that one in, but it is a probable cause).<\/span><\/p>\n Police officers however were a little higher than the general population in the number of cops who have 3 or more marriages.\u00a0 Guess cops don\u2019t learn the first time very well, or they don\u2019t really want to be alone.\u00a0 Or perhaps they just make bad choices over and over and over.<\/span><\/p>\n The main thing I see is we need to concentrate a little more on the prison and correctional work.\u00a0 If we can get them to have the psychological resource some police departments have, we could be better off.\u00a0 Unfortunately, our correctional brothers are lagging a little behind.\u00a0 I hope they join this site too.<\/span><\/p>\n I think the other thing is we need to continue the work with keeping the men and women in our police departments psychologically aware because psychologists are having an effect.\u00a0 Meaning, thank God we have some nut doing blogs and videos for us, let\u2019s get it out to the rest of the officers.\u00a0 (That\u2019s called \u201cMajor Spin\u201d to make you aware to circulate this as much as you can.)<\/span><\/p>\n Many are shocked at this data for sure, I know a few psychologists would have never guessed it.\u00a0 We see all the people going through a divorce, so that makes sense.\u00a0 We all seem to live through the lives of those who are falling apart and cops do talk for sure, so the rumors get going rather easily.\u00a0 But you must not pay attention to them, as cops at least have a lower divorce, suicide and domestic violence rate than the general public.\u00a0 Of course, this is only for people reading this so keep it quiet.\u00a0 I am sure the next time your union negotiates a contract, the numbers will go back where they were.\u00a0 \u201cThey go through so much stress their divorce, suicide and domestic violence rates are higher, so you need to pay them more for their pain and the suffering of their poor families.\u201d\u00a0 But for now, feel good, you are healthier than people give you credit for, except for PTSD, I bet that\u2019s higher.\u00a0 Dr. Aamodt, I feel a new project coming on.![\"divorce\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/policepsychologyblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/divorce.jpg?resize=164%2C300\")
the organization from October 2002 until this year where I passed the leadership role.\u00a0 This year I actually got to watch the presentations first hand since I wasn\u2019t organizing a special meal or lost luggage or whatever \u201chissy fit\u201d complaints come up at a conference.\u00a0 It is a great conference of law enforcement officers and psychologists. \u00a0I suggest you schedule it next year.<\/span><\/p>\nWhat is the Myth?<\/h2>\n
Good News, Bad News<\/h2>\n
So What Do We See\u00a0<\/span> <\/span><\/h2>\n
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