Psychosocial distress of correctional officers

For many correctional officers, everyday work is particularly challenging due to organisational and job-related factors. The demands of everyday working life are increasing without equal provision being made to strengthen the resilience of the professional group. Even after critical events, employees are often left alone to cope with stressful events and the resulting emotions. International studies show various stressors in work life and support the assumption that these stressors lead to psychosocial distress and have a severe negative impact on correctional officers` health. This paper presents the body of research considering stressors and their effects on both physical and psychological health of correctional officers. Most of the results are based on international studies, so that a generalisation to the situation in Germany is only possible to a limited extent. So far, there is no comparable empirical basis in Germany.