Mental health and law enforcement professionals: Trauma history, psychological symptoms, and impact of providing services to child sexual abuse survivors.

Follette, Victoria M., Polusny, Melissa M., Milbeck, Kathleen·1994·Professional Psychology: Research and Practice

Abstract

A survey of 558 mental health and law enforcement professionals assessed current and past trauma experiences, exposure to traumatic client material, and the sequelae of both types of personal and professional trauma experiences. Results indicated that 29.8% of therapists and 19.6% of officers reported experiencing some form of childhood trauma.

Cites (2)

  1. Vicarious traumatization: A framework for understanding the psychological effects of working with victims
    McCann, I. Lisa, Pearlman, Laurie Anne · 1990 · Journal of Traumatic Stress
  2. Sexual abuse in a national survey of adult men and women: Prevalence, characteristics, and risk factors
    Finkelhor, David, Hotaling, Gerald, Lewis, I.A, Smith, Christine · 1990 · Child Abuse & Neglect

Show all 2 references

Cited by (7)

  1. Compassion satisfaction, compassion fatigue, and burnout in a national sample of trauma treatment therapists
    Craig, C.D., Sprang, G. · 2010 · Anxiety, Stress & Coping
  2. The emotional impact on and coping strategies employed by police teams investigating internet child exploitation
    Burns, Carolyn M., Morley, Jeff, Bradshaw, Richard, Domene, José · 2008 · Traumatology
  3. Vicarious Trauma: The Impact on Solicitors of Exposure to Traumatic Material:
    Vrklevski, Lila Petar, Franklin, John · 2008 · Traumatology
  4. Identifying the key risk factors for adverse psychological outcomes among police officers: A systematic literature review
    Sherwood, Larissa, Hegarty, Siobhan, Vallières, Frédérique, Hyland, Philip, Murphy, Jamie, Fitzgerald, Geraldine, Reid, Tracey · 2019 · Journal of Traumatic Stress
  5. Secondary Traumatic Stress Among Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Personnel: Impact, Risk Factors, and Coping Strategies
    Bourke, Michael L., Craun, Sarah W. · 2014 · Sexual Abuse

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How to cite

Cite CoChat for the checks on this page, and the paper for its own findings.

This page
CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Mental health and law enforcement professionals: Trauma history, psychological symptoms, and impact of providing services to child sexual abuse survivors. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1037//0735-7028.25.3.275
The paper
Follette, V. M., Polusny, M. M., & Milbeck, K. (1994). Mental health and law enforcement professionals: Trauma history, psychological symptoms, and impact of providing services to child sexual abuse survivors. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice. https://doi.org/10.1037//0735-7028.25.3.275

Data sources

Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.

Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).

Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.