Book Review on Emotional Survival for Law Enforcement Essay

Emotional Survival for Law Enforcement by Kevin M. Gilmartin, Ph. D. is a volume that seeks to inform and instruct those seeking to be in uprightness enforcement, law enforcement professionals and their families of the realities of a career in law enforcement- professionally and personalizedly. And how to best coiffure for emotional choice of the fittest of on-duty and off-duty life. It also compares and contrasts what happens to officers at the beginning of this journey and what emblematic happens to officers overtime focusing mainly on what happens to officers that dont spot the techniques of emotional survival.Though it does give virtually examples of officers who go emotional survival skills, it focuses on exemplifying the officers whose lives suffer from the lack of these skills and what great detriment it causes. Gilmartin begins by describing the early years of ones law enforcement career. How typically- idealistic, enthusiastic and determined rookie officers are. And how quickly this world shadower change from positive to distrustful and emotionally charged. How these long term behaviors if uncorrected, exacerbate, leading to mental and physical changes.Gilmartin uses personal experiences and stories to relate the topics addressed in this contain, in a way that of? cers elicit readily see some of the same characteristics in themselves. Gilmartin also discusses mental changes officers endure that preempt be caused by frequent exposure to dread(a) events. The most important definition made by Gilmartin describing officers on and off-duty is Hypervigilance the demand manner of viewing the world from a threat-based perspective, having the mindset to see events flowering as potentially hazardous. (Gilmartin Pg. 5)According to Gilmartin this- permits the on-duty of? cer to develop a natural state of increased alertness/awareness of his/her surroundings required for maximum of? cer safety. (Gilmartin Pg. 36) Gilmartin elaborates on his term of Hypervigilance and how it becomes problematic when he introduces the concept speculation of the Hypervigilant Biological Rollercoaster. Stating that the on-duty of? cer is alert, alive, energetic, quickthinking, involved and humorous, And the off-duty of? cer is tired, isolated, detached, apathetic and angry. (Gilmartin Pgs. 48-50)Gilmartin goes on to illustrate If law enforcement of? cers want to survive emotionally, they must examine their on-duty and off-duty life. fetching control of the events in their lives they notify control and survive and move on from the events they mucklenot control. Gilmartin describes how officers can become equipped professionals of emotional survival on and off-duty. On-Duty lettered as an officer there are only three things you can control integrity, professionalism, and how well you do the job you are assigned to do. hit duty proactive goal setting (outside of police work), exercise, and developing and nurturing separate roles in lif e besides the hypervigilant police role enabling of? cers to decimate their lifestyle healthy. I look at this encapsulates Gilmartins account hold ins main establishs and demonstrates his goal to attend to keep law enforcement officers healthy, by providing skill sets physically and emotionally, to survive the career. By not losing all of ones identity to just being a cop, succession remaining committed, engaged and productive on and off-duty.Now I would ilk to analyze Gilmartins books strengths and weaknesses. This work is well organized, written and easily read. To the point that I believe that it would keep anyone engaged no event if the lector was part of the intended target audience. For audience the book does target, I believe it intelligibly demonstrates the internal and external assaults officers will experience both personally and organizationally. And how officers can train themselves to perceive and act as a dupe in everything they do and in every way they th ink.Or how they can emotionally survive these assaults by balancing their identity and by acquiring healthy outlets to be proactive and engaged in personal affairs. This is illuminely demonstrated by various case study examples throughout the book. Examples of officers that string up directly in line with Gilmartins Hypervigilant Biological Rollercoaster theory and how some of these studies show the result of an officers application of emotional survival. This is what makes the book so strong.Gilmartins ability to give validity to his concepts by comparing and contrasting officer action and reaction of similar situations. Then applying his theory of those who fall victim to the Hypervigilant Biological Rollercoaster, have the victim mentality and the unbalanced identification with simply being a cop. To those officers that display emotional survival techniques. By doing this Gilmartin shows clear distinction drastic outcomes of similar situations. Reinforcing the importance of ac quiring emotional move tools and exemplifying the devastation in an officers life missing these skills.The weaknesses I encountered in this book where little if any emphasis was place on teaching of? cers how to avoid the other dangers they will ultimately face. generally focusing on the Hypervigilant cycle of officers and their loss of identity. I would have desire Gilmartin to explain how an officer handles a tough situation in the matter of life or death. And I would have liked Gilmartin to have more than than one chapter that focused on the emotional survival of law enforcement forcefulness.I believe it leaves the targeted audience waiting and wanting more instruction on how to become an emotional survival. Lastly I would have loved to have understood the compilation of data retrieved by Gilmartin. Discovering how he came up with his concepts and theories. everywhere what period time did he construct these particular studies and how many agencies did he work with to comp ile this data? What where the percentages of officers that suffered from a lack of emotional survival skills to those that had these skills? What percentages of officers fell in the middle?I believe knowing the numeric component to this research would have further qualified his findings. Overall this book was fantastic. I believe this book will help those elicit in law enforcement as well as of? cers and their families. I believe this book can help plot a path through a dif? cult journey in a law enforcement career. Helping book relationships, families and positive professional attitudes. Though I hoped for some addition entropy in this book it does not lack in quality or clarity of its messages.It is a strong book and I would recommend it to anyone interested in law enforcement, anyone currently in law enforcement, family members of law enforcement personnel and those who have been in law enforcement. I believe the goal of this book is to provide officers the information of how to recognize the deterioration of core values (personally and professionally) and what can take place in their lives if gone uncorrected. Then provides specific strategies that can be utilized to reduce the negative emotional and physical advert of a law enforcement career. I believe the book succeeds in doing this.