While most people do not seek crises in their lives, police officers respond to and immerse themselves daily into the chaos and confusion of other people's lives, and by doing so they put themselves at risk of becoming victims of traumatic incidents. Yet, they do so willingly and without hesitation. In law enforcement, stress can assume other meanings. In law enforcement, stressful or traumatic incidents are often referred to as critical incidents. A critical incident is any situation faced by an officer that causes him to experience unusually strong emotional or physical reactions.
Psychological crises violate or contradict the beliefs a person has about the world.
A crisis may shatter a person's assumptions regarding the world as a safe and orderly place. When a person is victimized, three basic assumptions or beliefs about the self and the world are challenged. When a person faces a loss, as in the loss of the feeling of invulnerability, there must be some adjustment in order to go on living. It is the meaning that an officer attributes to an event that determines their behavior and reactions after the event. In general, these formats involve taking an officer through a number of stages designed to alleviate symptoms of stress and educate the officer about normal reactions to abnormal events.