Moral injury, posttraumatic stress, and resilience among law enforcement professionals in Wisconsin

There is growing consensus that law enforcement professionals (LEP) experience mental health disparities compared to general population, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Moral injury (MI), distress from an acute or chronic violation of one’s morals, is a correlate of PTSD in military populations and may be related to PTSD in LEP. We deployed a cross-sectional survey to a diverse sample (N = 445) to examine this potential relationship and generated three linear regression models. The first model included MI, resilience, and critical incident exposure (r2 = 0.24). The second added demographic characteristics (r2 = 0.26), and the third included organizational characteristics (r2 = 0.29). Rurality and a specialty assignment were associated with higher scores indicating greater post-traumatic stress symptomology, while availability of chaplains was associated with lower scores. Across the models, MI and resilience were significantly associated with higher or lower scores, respectively. We discuss the implications of these results within the broader context of efforts to support LEP health.