Good Cops in a Greedy Institution? Dutch Police Officers’ Stories of Compound Moral Injury

Abstract The notion of moral injury is receiving considerable scholarly attention as a concept that can capture the lasting imprint of moral transgressions on frontline professionals and others. Whereas most studies adopt a clinical perspective to interpret this phenomenon, this study offers an inductive exploration of the organisational dimensions of moral injury in the context of police work, drawing on police officers’ stories of moral injury. To this end, in-depth interviews were conducted with morally injured police officers, which were analysed using narrative inquiry. This study shows that police moral injury needs to be understood in relation to the particularities of police work, its unique occupational culture, and circumstances. Thus, it shows the relevance of officers’ experiences of working in a ‘greedy institution’ that keeps demanding effort without providing the requisite trust or support. Theoretically, this study proposes the notion of ‘compound moral injury’ that was found to stem from multiple contributions, both on the frontline and in the organisation.