| The purpose of the study was to explore spirituality in police work by gathering and interpreting the accounts of established police officers who have followed spiritual practices for at least five years. While a great amount of research has been done regarding the effects of trauma and violence on police officers, there has been a dramatic lack of research regarding police officers and their spirituality. Less than three studies have addressed the issue of how police work affects police officers' spirituality rather than the reverse. This study investigated how a police officer's spirituality affects police work.; The participants were 10 police officers from across the United States. Seven men and three women were interviewed for this study. Their ages ranged from 25 to 57 years old. The participants included two Hispanics, one Asian-American, and seven European-Americans. Each participant, in addition to a minimum of five years experience in the law enforcement culture, had significant exposure to traumatic events, human destructiveness, and suffering. All participants believed in God and their primary spiritual practice was prayer.; The data-gathering instrument was semi-structured recorded interviews, chosen to provide the researcher the opportunity to explore how spirituality influences police work. Analysis of the data showed that the participants believed that their spiritual practices enriched their abilities to perform better as police officers serving their communities.; The common themes disclosed by the interviews fell into three broad categories: (1) spiritual philosophies and practices, including the belief in something greater than self that "calls" the participants to police work; (2) the importance of human relationships in supporting a humanistic approach to service; and (3) spiritual responses to the experiences of human destructiveness, suffering, evil, and death. There were also sub-themes that emerged from the core themes, such as spirituality and evil, ethical behavior, God's justice versus human justice, and compassionate concern for the human condition. Overall, this study found that the officers' spiritual practices help them to align with what they believe to be sacred or greater than self and that this alignment was then reflected in their police work. |
