# name
Drawing a line: boundary work in victim support police work

# metadata.dc.description.abstract[].value
Victim support entails one of the most intense stress- and trauma-laden
interactions faced by law enforcement professionals, and this function or role
frequently triggers long lasting negative effects on officers’ psychological health
and wellbeing. As police officers interact daily with victims, but also with other
officers, social services, and institutions, the limits between tasks and needs may
directly affect how they manage stress, trauma, and notions of individual and
organisational responsibility. As such, boundary work may be a useful
framework to understand and even improve how victim support police officers
interact with other individuals and organisations. Drawing from a groundbreaking qualitative, in-depth research with police officers that provide support to
victims of gender-based and domestic violence, this paper analyses conscious and
unconscious boundaries as key elements in the officers’ wellbeing. Informed by
the empirical findings of a case study of Catalonia’s Mossos d’Esquadra police
corps, this paper explores how victim support officers negotiate their individual
and organisational boundaries as they interact with other agents and institutions,
and how these negotiations affect them. This paper argues for the relevance of an
officer’s agency and discretion for distinguishing between conscious and
unconscious boundaries, as their limits may be blurred throughout the wide range
of interactions.

# metadata.dc.source[].value
Articles publicats en revistes (Antropologia Social)

# metadata.dc.title[].value
Drawing a line: boundary work in victim support police work