Abstract
Law enforcement is considered one of the most stressful careers due to the variety of traumaticevents that they will witness, among other stress-related factors. The act of witnessing traumatic
events is known as secondary trauma or secondary traumatic stress, which may result in an
individual experiencing or suffering from compassion fatigue. This paper undertook exploratory
analysis of the on-the-job (OTJ) stressors and related factors that LEOs within Southwest Florida
face and determined whether those LEOs exhibit characteristics or symptoms aligned with
compassion fatigue. Utilizing convenience sampling along with snowball sampling the sample
population (n=22) held positions of varying ranks, were from several agencies, and different
departments and units within an agency and had varying amounts of law enforcement experience
(x̄=11.64 years of service). Although generalizability is limited, given the diversity of the sample
size, in several aspects, consistent themes permeated across southwest Florida LEOs.
Particularly, field-note analysis showed a arguably fractured yet close-nit agency culture
specifically from an “us versus them” mentality, between administrations of most every agency
in the sample population; reliance and positive support system from colleagues, peers, and direct
supervisors; distress from a perceived lack of trust and confidence for new recruits/LEOs from
senior personnel; lastly, an acceptance of compulsory departmental transfers, both as a form of
punishment and as a advancement in an agency. Mitigating exposure to primary trauma (i.e.
trauma) and secondary trauma LEOs employ a habit of emotionally numbing themselves in order
to effectively and efficiently perform job duties. This thesis has also adapted several definitions
of compassion fatigue developing a novel and comprehensive definition of compassion fatigue.