Życie rodzinne w sferze zawodów wysokiego ryzyka : na przykładzie zawodu policjanta

The significant role that family plays in the process of development and socialization of a human being is undeniable. One’s profession constitutes another important aspect of every adult individual’s life. It is important, sience it enables one to acquire financial means necessary for satisfying one’s needs, and determines one’s place in the society or a social group. The ability to reconcile professional activity with family liferis a problem which has lately become a subject of interest among the representatives of various academic fields. Its importance and its role in the proper functioning of particular individuals, and the whole communities they belong to, make it impossible to ignore the influence of these people’s professional work on their and their families’ everyday existence. Maintaining the balance between one’s professional and personal life is mecessary for the complete realization of one’s working and family functions. It is especially important in the case of jobs, the performance of which requires availability for 24 hours a day and working during irregular hours, in difficult and dangerous conditions. Police service is an example of occupation witch determines one’s personal life to a considerable extent. The aim of the present work is to illustrate the impact that high risk occupations exert of the police officers’ personal and family life. In the book, various theoretical sources have been discussed, in which the basic information connected with human work, occupation and family are delineated. Different aspects of professional work have been also described, with a special consideration of the characteristics of a police officer’s profession in Poland: the background and the social-economic conditions of their service. In the empirical part of this study, the authors has presented the results of research, which she conducted among police officers, their families and people from their close environment. The main issues on which the author has focused include: position of work and family in the police officers’ system of values, marriages and divorces in the police officers’ rnvironment, leisure time and forms of spending it, and methods that the police officers tend to use for raising their children. The book constitutes a specific study of social consequences that performing a high risk occupation may have for the police officers’ personal and family life.