“A Thin Line of Resilience”: South African Police Service Support Services for Murder Detectives – A Case Study of a selected Police Precinct in Durban, South Africa

Résumé

Mental health and work-life balance have been increasingly recognised as a goal of law enforcement agencies worldwide. Murder detectives are frequently exposed to traumatic and brutal crime scenes, which can gradually lead to burnout, emotional distress, and decreased capacity to cope with stress. This study explored available counselling and support services provided to SAPS murder detectives. A case study design and a qualitative approach were used within the constructivist paradigm. Data were collected by in-depth interviews with eight (n = 8) murder detectives and two (n = 2) employees who were purposively sampled from a selected precinct in Durban. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. The study revealed that although counselling and support services are available in SAPS, their use is limited and this was attributed to challenges such as not having enough trained health and wellness practitioners, high workload among health and wellness practitioners, limited knowledge of the services among detectives, workload which prevents detectives from prioritising counselling services, confidentiality concerns and religious barriers. Notwithstanding the challenges, murder detectives who utilise support services reported positive perceptions of SAPS support services. Based on the findings, it is recommended that employee health and wellness services be strengthened to provide immediate support to detectives. While stress is unavoidable, effective support structures should be in place to equip detectives with effective coping mechanisms. State the contribution of this study to scholarship.

Citer ce document

Accès au document

Texte intégral en lecture en ligne, réservé aux abonnés SPHAERO et aux membres de l'institution. Se connecter

Auteur(s)

Statistiques

Consultations : 1

Téléchargements : 0