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NiKaya DeWald

Professor Bethany Toy

ENC 1102

1 March 2021

Literature Review:

Forensic science as we know it today is now used, in some cases, to determine the end of

a legal case and it is a part of routine criminal and government proceedings. The study of

forensics has branched out from its beginnings to encompass specializations such as DNA, trace

evidence, ballistics, handwriting analysis, toxicology, digital evidence, pathology, and others.

The skills used in a forensic genre are most frequently talked about and utilized in a

governmental or legal setting, and there is undoubtedly high levels of stress and secrecy that

comes with certain specializations.

Forensic specializations are utilized in gruesome criminal cases and can even reach so far

as counterterrorism in the FBI. In many cases it is difficult to leave work and home life

separated, and “police work is often associated with high strain as evidenced by the severe

psychological and physiological problems experienced by officers'' (Hall). This sentiment can

also be applied to forensic scientists since the overlap in job environment and demand is pretty

similar. “Research on the work responses of traditional law enforcement officers and criminal

justice system employees demonstrates that individuals tend to experience high levels of stress”

(Holt).

In some other studies it’s been found that “exhaustion had reciprocal relations with work-

home interference (WHI) over time, and that exhaustion and WHI were predictors of workload”
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(Demerouti). To a similar tone, it has been studied that “occupational stress is of increasing

importance due to continuing structural changes in the workplace, with both increasing demands

and job insecurity imposed on employees'' (Tennant). There have been other studies that examine

stress based on one’s occupation, such as the one done by Johnson. The conclusions drawn were

that stress in the workplace can be caused by any number of factors, but it does also depend on

the occupation itself. In conjunction with this idea, Holt breaks this down into one occupation

and investigates how stress in the workplace can affect forensic scientists. It is one of the only

forays into, specifically, forensic science I have found.

My goal would be to research more specifically what kinds of forensic specializations

cause greater work exhaustion and the related effects compared to other specializations--to

conclusively determine if one specialization causes more stress and burnout than another. My

research will focus on three forensic specializations: toxicology, linguistics, and trace evidence.

Within each of these specializations I will aim to get a good measurement of the level of stress

that originates from and is related to the job itself and not from other factors. However, I would

also like to explore the stress related to each specialization on how it affects or creates mental

health issues in employees. My hope is that I may be able to make a determination on what

specialization would allow an individual succeed the most depending on their relationship to and

ability to handle work related burnout along with their personal interest and skill level,

depending.
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Annotated Bibligoraphy:

Demerouti, Evangelia, et al. “The Loss Spiral of Work Pressure, Work–Home Interference and

Exhaustion: Reciprocal Relations in a Three-Wave Study.” Journal of Vocational

Behavior, Academic Press, 30 May 2003,

www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001879103000307#.

The purpose of this article was to examine the relationship between work pressure and

home life in a study conducted in three waves. The goal was to determine if work or home was

the main cause of exhaustion in the other and then to study how this could change over time. By

the end of the study it was determined that it was mostly impossible to determine which would

be the cause of stress and that it presented itself in a spiral. However, it was seen that work and

home life affecting one another to any capacity was indicative of the size of one’s workload.

There were several resulting mental and physical health conditions that could be observed aside

from the “loss spiral.” The remaining question that was discussed was finding a way to end or

get out of the spiral.

I chose this source because it seemed relevant to the side of my research question relating

to stress. It details some resulting conditions that can be pinpointed as someone having stress

from either work or home and I could use it to examine people in different forensic

specializations and see if their stress goes so far as to place them in a loss spiral or not. I think

this source relates to Johnson’s because they’re both about stress, but his study narrows it down

to different occupations as opposed to stress and its cause in general. I believe this source is vital

to my research because in order to differentiate between stress in forensic specializations, I must

first understand how workplace stress occurs and why.

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Gaines, Jeannie, and John M. Jermier. “Emotional Exhaustion in a High Stress Organization.”

Academy of Management Journal, vol. 26, no. 4, Dec. 1983, pp. 567–586. EBSCOhost,

doi:10.2307/255907.

The purpose of this article was to study sources of emotional exhaustion in a police

station. The burnout process was modeled and explained along with things that are predictive of

exhaustion. The police department that was studied was known to be a high-stress environment

since it was faced with a high crime rate. In the beginning of the study, the burnout model is

shown and discussed along with causes and effects of emotional strain. After that, several

predictors of strain are named and discussed. The study resulted in findings that showed

exhaustion was caused by a combination of factors, but it was mostly affected by the department

in general along with policies as opposed to being caused by just the job itself.

I chose this source because it seemed the most related to my research question. A police

station is not a forensic science job, but police officers and forensic scientists face a similar job

environment which ended up being one of the main stressors as opposed to the actual job

performed. I think this is one of the most accurate comparisons I could get to what I want to

research. This source also relates most to Sheena’s research because it is a more focused version

of that study: one profession as opposed to many. My research is aimed towards a similar goal,

where I will research burnout and stress in one profession, so I think this source is useful in

showing how others have gone about a similar line of questioning.

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Johnson, Sheena, et al. “The Experience of Work‐Related Stress across Occupations.” Journal of

Managerial Psychology, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 1 Mar. 2005,

www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/02683940510579803/full/html.

The purpose of this article was to examine the effects of stress across several different

occupations and to draw conclusions based on that. The occupations were measured based on

psychological well‐being, physical health and job satisfaction. Out of all the jobs tested, there

were those that scored less than average on each front and it was found that these could be

labelled as high stress jobs. Furthermore, it was found that a long exposure to stress can cause

mental health issues in individuals employed in these high stress jobs. The stressful environment

in each of these jobs could be caused by any number of factors which are further discussed in the

source.

I chose this source because it can be directly related to my research question. Since this

examines how stress differs across occupations, I can use it to draw conclusions related to people

employed in forensic science. Furthermore, I can take the factors which are discussed to cause

the high stress environment and compare them to the forensic specializations I want to study and

try to make predictions about how stressful they would compare to be. I have altered my research

question somewhat, but I’ve kept to the same field. I feel that the line of reasoning I have now

will be both interesting to study and useful to myself and others. Furthermore, I think this article

will be helpful in doing that. I think this source relates to Gaines’ and Demerouti’s studies

because it talks about stress and that stress relating to different occupations.
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Tennant, Christopher. “Work-Related Stress and Depressive Disorders.” Journal of

Psychosomatic Research, Elsevier, 26 Nov. 2001,

www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022399901002550.

This article examines the impact of work-related stress on individuals in terms of mental

and physical health. The overview states that stress can affect satisfaction, productivity, and

worker health (mental and physical). They broke workers into “blue” (lower class) and “white

collar” (upper class) categories and discussed the different kinds of stressor and some effects

relating to the economic status of the job. Furthermore they examined several other professions

labelled as “caring” (teachers and doctors) A variety of factors were examined like “job

controllability” and “hours worked.” Conclusions were drawn that stress in the workplace has

been increasing as time passes and the remaining question is whether the employee or employer

should take responsibility for the mental health issues seen in the workers.

I chose this source because it related to the part of my research question talking about

work stress with people who have mental health issues. It examines different professions based

upon specific types which is similar to researching them based on specialization like I want to.

Furthermore, it examines a line of reasoning that gives examples of causes and effects of mental

illness in a workplace. I think this source relates to Demerouti’s study because the mental health

issues can be seen as something that results as being stuck in a loss spiral. With this study in

mind I should be able to use it as a guide on how to differentiate stresses caused by work and
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those caused by extenuating factors. While it may fall into a spiral, I think it’s a good place to

start.

Wright, Thomas A., and Russell Cropanzano. “Emotional Exhaustion as a Predictor of Job

Performance and Voluntary Turnover.” Journal of Applied Psychology, vol. 83, no. 3,

June 1998, pp. 486–493. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1037/0021-9010.83.3.486.

This article examines the state of being exhausted as something that can predict the way

someone performs their job. The burnout model is discussed and it’s concluded that emotional

exhaustion is a key factor in burnout. Five hypotheses were examined between the relationships

of job performance, job satisfactions, and emotional exhaustion. While it is noted that job-related

factors can cause exhaustion, personality factors are also taken into consideration. It is also noted

that each thing that affects a person’s job has positive and/or negative effects. The final

conclusions drawn showed that emotional exhaustion led to a lower performance and caused

people to give up the present job. A discussion of further research included examining other

connections between exhaustion and performance.

I chose this article because it seemed related to my research question in the part of

explaining that stress and burnout affect job performance. I don’t think that I could continue

forward without solid proof or research done in the area of showing how stress can affect

someone’s job performance. This study goes so far as to show that it can even cause some people

to give up their job entirely. I think I can use the findings presented in this study to help me

understand the process that occurs which can lead to someone becoming stressed and burnt out--

things that lead to negative job performance.This source is related to Gaines’s study and this is
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directly stated in the article itself. They both make use of the burnout model, and I think this

source is a good tool in further understanding the conversation that Gaines is taking part in.

Gaines’s study is, as I mentioned before, very helpful to me.

“Examining the Impact of Organizational and Individual Characteristics on Forensic Scientists'

Job Stress and Satisfaction.” Taylor & Francis,

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0735648X.2016.1216731.

This article focuses on researching specifically forensic scientists and their job stresses.

The specifics of job demands are first explained as well as their relation to other occupations like

police officers and other such criminal justice professions. The main goal was to examine how a

forensic scientist’s daily jobs are impacted by several factors. The study mainly focused on

forensic professions that had direct dealings with the criminal justice system. In the end it was

found that many job-related things were able to predict stress on the job. For example, more

working hours was indicative of higher stress. The final result was that forensic scientists do

experience high levels of stress like other criminal justice professions, but it is affected by many

factors like work relationships and working hours.

I chose this article because it was the most closely related article to my question that I

could find. I am not making the focus of the specializations I want to study something directly

related to criminal justice alone, rather I want to look at the profession as a whole. I think this

article will help me the most because it’s dealing with forensic science specifically. I can use it to

get a good idea of what I should be looking for in terms of causes of stress for forensic scientists.
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I think this article is most closely related to Gaines’s because it examines the idea that being a

forensic scientist is a high stress environment and it’s compared to other criminal justice

professions like police work.