مقاله انگلیسی استرس و حمایت در محیط کار: دیدگاه بازرسان پزشکی قانونی
Abstract
Introduction
Method
Results
Discussion
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
References
Abstract
Research regarding stress in the workplace and its potential impact upon forensic expert decision-making and wellbeing is scarce. In this study, 41 forensic examiners were surveyed about the sources of their stress, the support they receive, and the potential influence of stress on their decisions. Stress from managers, supervisors and case backlogs were identified as significant factors that contributed to stress in the workplace. Neither the type of case nor working in high-profile cases were reported to be major sources of stress. Crime scene examiners reported feeling higher levels of stress from personal reasons and from the nature of their cases than analytical examiners. Female examiners reported feeling more stressed than male examiners from both general stressors and workplace stressors. Examiners in the 11–15 years of experience group felt more pressure as a result of circumstances at work than examiners in the 7–10 years group. The level of management support was not associated with either the feelings of general stress or stress in the workplace. Examiners varied in their perceptions of whether stress affected their judgements: 39% felt that their judgments were influenced by stress, while 22% did not and 39% were unsure.
Introduction
Forensic examiners operate in a high stress working environment (National Institute of Justice, 2019) where they are faced with various sources of stress (Almazrouei et al., 2020; Holt et al., 2017; Kelty & Gordon, 2015). Some workplace stress factors, such as high caseloads and backlogs, can be common across different occupations (Kelty & Gordon, 2015). Other factors, such as exposure to bloody crime scenes, working in a culture of ‘zero errors’ and being subject to cross-examination in court, are specific to the certain fields within forensic science (Jeanguenat & Dror, 2018). It has been suggested that organizational culture can play a role and impact the decision making of forensic examiners (Dror, 2020; fifth source of bias in Fig. 1). Organizational factors can include a range of factors from time pressures and achieving targets (Dror, 2020) to implicit pressures on the examiners to align with the proposition of one legal side over another (Murrie et al., 2013), or to reach certain conclusions (Almazrouei et al., 2020; Ulery et al., 2017).