Verbal Aggression in the Professional Activities of Police Officers

Yakimova Zoya Vladimirovna PhD in Psychology Associate professor, Department of Humanities, Vladivostok branch of Far Eastern Law Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia 690087, Russia, Primorskii krai, g. Vladivostok, ul. Kotel'nikova, 21 yakimovazoya@yandex.ru Other publications by this author

The current Russian legislation, in particular the Federal Law "On Police" dated 07.02.2011 No. 3-FZ requires law enforcement officers to observe and respect human and civil rights and freedoms, legality, impartiality, openness and publicity, interaction and cooperation with citizens.  Any violation of these principles entails appropriate sanctions. However, when performing a number of official tasks, law enforcement officers are daily forced to communicate with a special contingent of citizens (criminals, repeat offenders, marginals, drug addicts, alcoholics, rowdies, religious fanatics, football fans, extremists, etc.) and often face hostile and biased attitude not only to themselves personally, but also to the entire law enforcement the system as a whole.  Of course, the high degree of probability of the threat of not only verbal, but also physical aggression on the part of citizens in relation to the guards determines the chronic stress of professional activity and leaves an indelible imprint on the psyche of law enforcement officers.

  Aggression as a complex socio-psychological phenomenon always presupposes the presence of an environmental context (frustration, deprivation, stress, a situation of uncertainty or threat), which causes certain actions and external manifestations of the emotional state of the subject in relation to another subject / object that caused aggression and aggressive behavior. In other words, the observed aggressive behavior will always unfold according to a certain scenario: the cause is an internal state – an external manifestation (physical action, verbal and nonverbal indicators of aggression) [1 s, 11].

From a psychophysiological point of view, any kind of aggression is a mechanism for "dumping" excess potential, freeing the body from excessively accumulated and unspent emotional energy. As it is known, excessive emotional states (both negative and positive), emotions not reacted in a timely manner and not lived in an environmentally friendly way, have the ability to transform and find a way out either in an internal form through somatic diseases, or in an external form through aggression. With a long absence of a "discharging" stimulus that can relieve excessive tension, the readiness for an aggressive reaction increases. Any physical activity (including sports), verbal activity (the need to speak out) and psychophysiological reaction (crying, tears, sobbing, sobbing, roaring, or) can be noted as eco-friendly discharge stimuli. However, social patterns and stereotypes in the likeness: "men don't cry", "you need to be restrained", "you need to control yourself" and the like – create internal restrictions on the eco-friendly reaction of emotions and contribute to the accumulation of irritability, active search for an excuse for aggressive discharge, including discharge through conflict, swearing, a quarrel, a fight, damage to property.

Thus, we come to understand that aggression always occurs against the background of a certain psycho-emotional state, whether it is frustration, stress, anger or irritability. But, it is worth noting that not all police officers, due to their personal, including characterological characteristics, are able to work productively in conditions of stressful communications associated with the risk of a threat to life and health (both physical and psychological).

The research results demonstrate that the state of aggression is characterized by a complex of negative emotional states experienced by the subject in the act of communication, which can further lead to the implementation of aggressive behavior [2 p, 172].  In other words, failure at the level of professional communication and negotiation can provoke an outbreak of uncontrolled aggression that can translate the conflict "from words to deeds", that is, from the level of verbal aggression to the level of physical aggression (assault).

I would like to emphasize that modern psycholinguistic research integrates knowledge about human aggression from various scientific fields, including psychology, sociology, philosophy, anthropology, linguistics and other sciences. In this regard, it is worth noting the absence to date of a single, generally accepted objective classical generic definition of verbal aggression. This often leads to identification with such concepts as, for example, "speech aggression", "verbal aggression", "menasive speech act", "affective speech", "communicative aggression", "invective speech", etc. At the same time, there is no doubt that the concept of "verbal aggression" will be broader in scope than the concept of "verbal aggression".  In particular, if verbal aggression is organized only by linguistic means, then speech aggression is actualized by both linguistic and paralinguistic means (gestures, facial expressions, silence, etc.) ^{[3, p.22]}.

For a more in-depth understanding of the phenomenon of verbal aggression, it is necessary to go from the general to the particular, from the study of speech aggression in its forms and manifestations to the specific manifestation of verbal aggression.

A fairly extensive number of researchers are engaged in the study of speech aspects of aggression. In particular, much attention is paid to the study of speech aggression in the space of Internet communications. For example, in the works of R. A. Extramarital ^[4], T. A. Vorontsova ^[5], M. A. Gorelik ^[6], V. M. Mirzoeva, A. T. Aksenova, Yu. V. Algunova, A. S. Safonova ^[7] aspects related to modern types of manifestations of aggressive speech social actions (cyberbullying, trolling, flaming, heyting, shaming).

Of particular interest are the studies of the gender aspects of the differentiation of aggression through the speech of R. K. Potapova, L. R. Komalova ^[2], as well as the study of N. V. Vizyagina ^[8], focused on identifying the manifestations of verbal aggression in men and women in the context of the increased number of lawsuits under Article 130 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation – on insult, that is, humiliation of honor and dignity, expressed in an indecent form. The issues of functional aspects of verbal aggression are considered in the works of O. N. Putina ^[9]. Of particular interest in the context of the presented research are the works of A. A. Romanov, L. A. Romanova, focused on identifying the features of the manifestation of verbal/speech aggression in professional activity ^[10].

Quite a large number of studies are devoted to the study of the relationship between the aggressiveness of law enforcement officers and various personal qualities and properties.

So, as an example, we can cite the research of a number of authors A. G. Badaev, I. V. Usacheva, S. V. Khutorskaya on the relationship between aggressive behavior and the level of intelligence of law enforcement officers. It was revealed that with an increase in the level of intellectual development of a police officer, the development of his intellectual abilities, there is an expansion of his repertoire of tactics for working with information and other people. As a result, aggression at the behavioral level becomes exclusively a way to protect one's own interests and the legitimate rights and freedoms of citizens, a reaction to reflect and express negative feelings, but through the content of communications, and not by causing objective physical harm to an opponent ^{[11, p.283]}.

No less interesting results were obtained in the study of T. G. Vasilenko, according to which a correlation was revealed between value orientations, the propensity of law enforcement officers to criminally aggressive acts and certain types of psychological defenses. So, in particular, the study of a sample of former law enforcement officers serving sentences for crimes of a criminally aggressive nature showed the predominance of such mechanisms of psychological protection as regression, substitution, compensation and hypercompensation, as well as the egocentric orientation of the value sphere with high expectations from others.  The study of a control sample of active law enforcement officers who are not inclined to display criminally aggressive behavior revealed the dominance of such mechanisms of psychological defenses as denial, projection, rationalization while devaluing and minimizing the impact of stressful situations, as well as the orientation of the value sphere to achieve for the benefit of the immediate environment and society as a whole by improving the quality of the activities performed with cooperation and mutual respect. ^{[12, pp.130-131]}. Accordingly, we come to the conclusion that the guarantor of psycho-emotional self-regulation in difficult stressful situations of professional activity of law enforcement officers is the ability to cooperate and respect each other, which is impossible to achieve, again, without a developed level of communicative competence.

In the study of L. A. Vorobyova, a number of difficulties were identified that cause complications when communicating with citizens by law enforcement officers. These included: difficulties in understanding people, their interests, life and legal socialization; difficulties in assessing positive and negative, strengths and weaknesses of citizens; difficulties in establishing psychological contact with certain categories of citizens; inability to convince; weak skills of self-regulation of mental state in contradictory contacts with citizens, as well as the ability to predict the further behavior of citizens with whom professional interaction takes place is not sufficiently developed ^{[13, p. 28]}. In addition, a number of factors were noted that make it difficult to communicate with colleagues (both with colleagues and with management), causing difficulties in resisting psychological pressure and provoking office conflicts.  

Foreign researchers consider the manifestations of aggression in the professional activities of police officers in the context of related studies of various psycho-emotional states and/or personal qualities

So, in particular, in the study of the professional activities of police officers, American researchers pay the greatest influence to various aspects of stress and post-traumatic stress disorder associated with the performance of official duties ^[14].

In addition, foreign researchers have identified the relationship between the level of aggression and professional stress among law enforcement officers at risk of deterioration of mental and physical health due to the high demands and stressful nature of police work. As a way to reduce the level of aggression and stress for law enforcement officers, self-regulating cognitive training aimed at increasing dispositional mindfulness was proposed ^[15].

 One of the new directions in foreign studies of police professional activity is associated with compassion fatigue, which can be defined as a state of tension and concern for traumatized people due to reliving their traumatic events, which leads to a desire to avoid the traumatized person and any reminders of their trauma, as well as to a decrease in the ability or interest in the suffering of others. Compassion fatigue has various consequences, including increasing the risk of professional burnout ^[16].

No less interesting, in our opinion, is a study in which American police officers during training were offered a scenario of an armed suicidal subject who needed to be disarmed. Only 32% of 108 respondents coped with the task. Some of the officers never gave verbal commands when confronted with an armed subject. Many officers did nothing when the role player disobeyed their commands to stop moving towards them, and more than 57% of officers stepped back when faced with this threat ^[17]. 

Separately, it is worth noting a study on occupational risk in the interaction of police officers with persons suffering from mental illness. Police officers were asked to take a self-efficacy survey and attitudes towards persons with mental illnesses involved in the criminal justice system before and after specialized training on mental health and addictions ^[18].

An analysis of the Australian experience of training recruits for the needs of law enforcement revealed a bias in favor of paramilitary training and significant shortcomings in the training of police officers focused on interaction with society. First of all, we are talking about the insufficient development of effective communication skills when the police interact with vulnerable persons, such as those with mental illness or in crisis ^[19].

An analysis of the Swiss experience has shown that police officers can report possible psychological stress in more indirect ways, such as a feeling of chronic fatigue, anxiety about various aspects of their work, a feeling of lack of support from their superiors, a constant feeling of work overload or a sense of meaninglessness or burnout.  The high level of stress perceived by police officers during their normal work increases their perception of threats and their potential aggressive reaction to them ^[20].

Thus, it can be concluded that in foreign practice, law enforcement officers face similar problems related to aggression, stress, risk in professional activity and insufficient level of development of communicative competencies. Obtaining basic and additional professional education, the use of self-regulation practices, significantly expand the competence range and can significantly reduce the level of aggression and professional stress, and hence the risk of professional burnout.

As a result, we come to understand that the basis of effective professional activity of law enforcement officers, both in the context of communication with various categories of citizens, and in the context of interaction with colleagues and management within the service team, is communicative competence and the ability to psycho-emotional self-regulation in stressful conditions of professional communication. Accordingly, not the ability to solve conflict situations at the level of communication leads to uncontrolled outbursts of aggression, and not the ability to psycho-emotional self-regulation is highly likely to manifest itself as in the form of verbal and/or physical aggression.

 It should be noted that verbal aggression is a form of verbal behavior focused on insulting or threatening to intentionally harm a particular person or group of persons.

In the broadest sense of the word, the phrase "speech aggression" means any kind of offensive, dominant speech behavior. In the narrow sense of the word, the manifestation of verbal aggression (for example, insult, mockery, threat, malice, curse, hostile remark) is considered as a substitute act of aggressive physical influence. Aggressive speech behavior has a fairly wide range of tools, such as, for example, irritably raised or, conversely, dismissively lowered tone of voice; experiencing the interlocutor tense silence / excessive assertiveness in conversation, unambiguous gestures, etc.

For the written form of communication, modern speech aggression manifests itself mainly through Internet communication in the form of cyberbullying, trolling, flaming, "heyting", "shaming". As can be seen from the listed terms, all of them significantly demonstrate a fairly rapid assimilation of Anglo-Americanisms in the Russian language environment.   The "invisibility" of Internet communicators creates a complete illusion of freedom, power over the situation and a sense of impunity.

Cyberbulling is the regular distribution and posting of information of dangerous, hostile, aggressive content. Cyber threats are a type of cyberbullying and includes psychological harassment, intimidation, mailing and posting threats or material on the Internet that can cause psychological harm.

Trolling is an aggressive form of social speech provocation or bullying in online communication to escalate a communicative conflict. The purpose of Internet trolling can be defined as overcoming an inferiority complex, self-affirmation, drawing attention to one's person, gaining experience of manipulation in a virtual environment.  This goal is achieved through the opportunity to test people's patience, provoke them to waste time and comments on the web, violate the norms of Internet etiquette without global consequences for themselves; the opportunity to offend, hook complete strangers through attacks and negative comments; the opportunity to express their hostility to individuals or ideas.

 Flaming is an aggressive verbal interaction, the purpose of which is to incite a quarrel, the very process of a dispute (a dispute for the sake of a dispute). During flaming, there is often a departure from the topic of discussion, a transition to personality, the use of reproaches and abuse instead of arguments.

Hating is a type of aggressive social speech activity, which is based on hatred and envy of the creativity or activity of another person [7 p,109]. Haters are people who publicly hate someone, write caustic, angry comments and expressions against the object of hatred, mock maliciously, throw mud in the Internet space. Unlike criticism, heyting does not contain arguments and any evidence base, it is completely devoid of objectivity. As a rule, haters in the Internet space have neither a name nor a face (avatar), there is no habit of being responsible for what has been said, they compete with each other in rudeness and rudeness.

Shaming is a type of aggressive speech social activity, which is based on the desire to disgrace a person, to cause him a sense of shame. Shaming refers to posting negative comments to someone's materials (especially photos) on social networks.

In the case of Internet communications, an individual, his self-presentation and any manifestation in the Internet space (photos, videos, posts, posted comments, texts) becomes the object of aggressive speech behavior.  The main types of aggressive speech behavior in the space of Internet communications include criticism of appearance and personal qualities, criticism of abilities and achievements, criticism of biographical facts, teasing, ridicule, threats, swearing, profanity.

 The reasons for aggressive speech behavior in the space of Internet communications can be both hostility towards the object of aggression, and a low level of speech and communicative culture of the subject of aggression [6 c, 63]. In addition, the high degree of aggression in the information space can be explained by the specifics of political, economic and social life in crisis and transition the period, as well as the peculiarities of national communicative behavior, mentality and culture [21 p, 158 ].   

In cases of unauthorized posting on the Internet of information about facts, events and circumstances of the private life of law enforcement officers, any of the manifestations of written verbal aggression (cyberbullying, trolling, flaming, heiting, shaming) can provoke retaliatory verbal aggression on the part of an employee and not only negatively affect the exercise of authority, but also hinder the fight against crimes and violations, as well as to create a negative image of police officers in general.  In this regard, acting law enforcement officers, in order not to provoke instigators and provocateurs in the space of Internet communications, are strongly advised to refrain from any frank comments on certain "acute" issues, maintaining social networks, blogs, publishing publicly any information about their private life and professional activities, it can compromise and negatively affect both the employee himself (reputational risks) and the system as a whole (image risks), as well as have negative consequences for law enforcement and the administration of justice.

 Thus, speech aggression, as a form of manifestation of violations of ethical and speech norms (regardless of the oral or written format), is caused by the aggressive state of the speaker and aims to provoke and/or support the aggressive state of the interlocutor.

  Ignoring hostility on the part of the aggressor; switching (distraction) of attention to a compromise topic; changing the aggressor's negative psycho-emotional state to neutral or positive; using the rules of speech etiquette (the influence of personal example) can be identified as the main strategies for countering speech aggression [22 p, 325].

E. N. Basovskaya defines verbal aggression as explicitly (openly) expressed opposition of the speaker in relation to the interlocutor ^[23].  Unlike speech aggression, considered as a purposeful communicative action aimed at causing a negative psycho-emotional state in the subject of speech exposure, verbal aggression is focused solely on getting rid of the swearing (verbally aggressive person) from negative emotions, relieving neuropsychic tension and psycho-emotional discharge through swearing, swearing, the use of foul language and obscene expressions when defending their positions or points of view.

However, it is necessary to differentiate verbal aggression from the concept of "invective speech", which means ridiculing, insulting, humiliating or denouncing speech aimed at public social discrediting of a real person or group of persons. The ancient Roman concept of "invectiva oratio", meaning "abusive speech" in modern interpretation is interpreted as "black PR", personifying an action aimed at worsening the image (social image) of a certain object. 

Summarizing the above, we come to the understanding of the goal as the main differentiating feature in the identification of various types of aggressive speech behavior:

the purpose of speech aggression is to provoke or support a retaliatory aggressive psycho–emotional state in the interlocutor.;

the purpose of invective speech is public humiliation, social discrimination of the interlocutor;

the purpose of verbal aggression is the removal of excessive psycho–emotional tension and emotional relief of swearing in a situation of stress or conflict when defending their position or point of view.

In the context of the presented research, it is verbal aggression in the professional activities of police officers that is of scientific interest. From our point of view, the choice of a verbal aggression strategy is often due to fear, inability or unwillingness to resolve the conflict in a constructive way with the help of communicative competencies and skills of effective professional communication. As a result, the accumulated psycho-emotional tension finds release through verbal aggression.

Three methods served as the methodological basis for the study:

1. The Bass-Darkey Hostility Questionnaire (BDHI, 1957), first published in 1957 by American psychologists A. Bass and E. Darkey, was further reworked into the Bass-Perry Aggression Diagnostic Questionnaire (BPAQ, 1992). The questionnaire is designed to diagnose aggressive and hostile reactions. Aggressiveness is understood as a personality trait characterized by the presence of destructive tendencies, mainly in the field of subject-object relations, expressed in a preference for using violent ways to achieve their goals. Hostility is understood as a personality trait expressing an unfriendly attitude, negative feelings and negative assessments of people and events, a willingness and desire to cause evil based on resentment and guilt. The study used an electronic version of the questionnaire adapted by A. Osnitsky, consisting of 75 questions and allowing analysis on the following scales: physical aggression, indirect aggression, irritation, verbal aggression, resentment, suspicion, negativism, guilt. The listed reactions are integrated into the aggression index (physical aggression, indirect aggression, irritation, verbal aggression) and the hostility index (resentment, suspicion, negativism, guilt).

2. The questionnaire "Personal aggressiveness and conflict" (E. P. Ilyin, P.A. Kovalev) is designed to identify the tendency to conflict and aggression as personal characteristics.  At the same time, conflict is understood as a multidimensional character trait that provokes a person to enter into frequent and intense conflict situations. Personality conflict is determined by a whole set of factors, such as: temperament, level of aggressiveness, level of communicative competence, level of intelligence, current psycho-emotional state, as well as a number of social factors ranging from the social environment to the general level of culture. In addition, positive and negative aggressiveness are differentiated in the context of the methodology. Positive aggressiveness is an integral component in achieving goals, human development and improving the quality of his life. Positive aggressiveness allows a person to defend his point of view and his boundaries, achieve the desired result without succumbing to manipulation and, despite the difficulties encountered, overcome all obstacles on the way to getting a result, even if causing minor discomfort to other people.  Negative aggressiveness is focused on destruction and causes other people strong psychological discomfort, unwillingness to interact / communicate with the aggressor in any way.

The study used an electronic version of the questionnaire, consisting of 80 questions and allowing analysis on the following scales: short temper, assertiveness, resentment, intransigence, uncompromising, vindictiveness, intolerance to the opinions of others, suspicion. These characteristics are integrated into positive aggressiveness (the sum of points on the scales of assertiveness, intransigence) and negative aggressiveness (the sum of points on the scales: intolerance to the opinions of others, vindictiveness). In addition, the technique allows you to determine the overall level of conflict (the sum of points on the scales: uncompromising, quick temper, resentment, suspicion).

2. Questionnaire "Strategies for overcoming stressful situations" (SACS) (author S. Hobfall, 1994; adaptation by N. Vodopyanova, E. Starchenkova, 2009)defines nine models of overcoming behavior: assertive actions, entering into social contact, seeking social support, cautious actions, impulsive actions, avoidance, manipulative (indirect) actions, antisocial actions, aggressive actions, as well as calculating the overall constructiveness index. The electronic version of the questionnaire consisting of 54 questions was used in the study. The general constructiveness index shows to what extent the chosen models of overcoming professional stresses contribute to the success of business communication in emotionally stressful situations, professional adaptation and resistance to the syndrome of professional and psycho-emotional burnout.

The empirical material for studying the phenomenon of verbal aggression in the professional activities of police officers, as well as the study of personal qualities that form aggressive behavior, including verbal aggression and determine the choice of strategies for overcoming a stressful situation were the results of online testing of active police officers undergoing training in secondary and higher education programs at the time of the study, as well as additional education programs. professional education and advanced training on the basis of the Vladivostok branch of the Far Eastern Law Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia.

The empirical study involved 163 active police officers, including 139 men (85.28%) and 24 women (14.72%).

The age range of respondents at the time of the study was from 24 to 52 years. The following age groups were identified: under 25 years – 12 people (7.36%); from 26 to 30 years – 17 people (10.43%); from 31 to 35 years – 57 people (34.97%); from 36 to 40 years – 57 people (34.97%); from 41 up to 46 years – 15 people (9.21%); from 46 to 50 years – 4 people (2.45%); over 51 years – 1 person (0.61%). The distribution of the sample by age category corresponds to the normal distribution.

Another analyzed parameter is the level of education of a police officer. The study was attended by graduate students in the following specialties and areas of training:

40.02.02 – specialty "Law enforcement", secondary legal education – 29 people (17.79%);

40.03.01 – the direction of training "Jurisprudence", higher legal education (bachelor's degree), obtained on the basis of the first higher non–legal education - 51 people (31.29%);

40.05.02 – specialty "Law enforcement", higher legal education, obtained on the basis of secondary / secondary vocational education – 83 people (50.92%).

In processing the empirical data obtained, generally accepted methods of parametric statistics were used for sampling with a normal distribution. Correlations between the studied characteristics were determined using the ?2 — Pearson criterion.

 The analysis of the results of the study revealed the following trends:

1. In the whole sample, verbal aggression has a high correlation (0.77) with the aggressiveness index, since it is an integral part of behavioral aggression. In addition, verbal aggression has an average correlation with positive aggressiveness (0.40), in particular with its component such as assertiveness (0.42). A weak correlation was found between verbal aggression and the hostility index (0.35), short temper. Accordingly, it can be assumed that verbal aggression, being an integral part of an aggressive behavior model, manifests itself to a greater extent in hot-tempered individuals in situations where it is necessary to defend their point of view or personal boundaries, overcome obstacles that have arisen on the way to achieving the goal.

2. The level of verbal aggression in male police officers is 4.51, which is 1.16 times higher than the level of verbal aggression in female police officers (3.88) points on the scale of verbal aggression (the Bass-Darkey Questionnaire). A similar trend persists for the ratio of the aggression index and the hostility index for male and female police officers, these ratios are reflected in Figure 1.

Fig.1 Ratio of verbal aggression, aggression index and hostility index in male and female police officers

3. The aggression index showed the greatest correlation with verbal aggression (0.77) and irritation (0.72), and the hostility index has the greatest correlation with suspicion (0.82) and resentment (0.79). At the same time, both the aggression index and the hostility index for men are also higher than for women working in the field of law enforcement.

4. Verbal aggression has a strong correlation with the aggression index (0.77) and a weak correlation with the hostility index (0.35), which indicates the dominance of c in the structure of a personality prone to verbal aggression of such personal qualities as quick temper and irritability, rather than resentment and suspicion.

5. The results obtained confirmed a high level of correlation between positive aggressiveness and assertiveness (0.86), intransigence (0.86); as well as a high level of correlation between negative aggressiveness and intolerance to the opinions of others (0.83), vindictiveness (0.80). Conflictedness showed a high level of correlation with short temper (0.74), resentment (0.73); an average level of correlation with intolerance to the opinions of others (0.66) and a weak correlation with uncompromising (0.36). However, we have not identified a correlation between conflict as a behavior model and suspicion (-0.25). Most likely, this is due to the specifics of the professional activities of police officers.  At the same time, an average correlation is observed between conflict and suspicion as personality traits (0.51). From this it follows that when considering the phenomena of aggressiveness and conflict, it is necessary to differentiate aggressiveness and conflict as behavioral models and aggressiveness and conflict as personal qualities.

6. Regarding stress response models in professional activity, the highest constructiveness index is observed when correlated with the strategy of "entering into social contact" (0.46) and with the strategy of "seeking social support" (0.41). The lowest constructiveness index was revealed when choosing the "aggressive actions" strategy (- 0.73) and the "avoidance" strategy (0.71). The overall negative impact on the constructiveness index is also caused by the choice of such strategies as: "antisocial actions" (-0.58) and "manipulative actions" (-0.45). The correlation between verbal aggression and the constructiveness index is -0.21, which may indicate a slight complication of constructive conflict resolution in the professional activities of police officers under the influence of verbal aggression.

7. The analysis of verbal aggression in the context of the selected age ranges showed that a low level of verbal aggression (4.08) is observed at the age of 25 years. The highest level of verbal aggression is observed at the age of 26 to 40 years. During this period, the difference in the level of verbal aggression is insignificant in all selected age ranges: 26-30 years (4.41), 31-35 years (4.44), 36-40 years (4.47). In subsequent age periods, there is a systematic decrease in the level of verbal aggression to 4.20 in the range of 41-45 years, to 3.75 in the range of 46-50 years. The dynamics of the level of verbal aggression depending on age is reflected in Figure 2. 

 Rice.2. The level of verbal aggression depending on age

The observed dynamics of the level of verbal aggression depending on the age category may be due to the fact that young people under the age of 25 do not yet have a sufficient level of professional competencies and professional experience and therefore are afraid to show excessive verbal aggression, choosing more prudent and cautious behaviors in conflict situations. Employees of older age categories from 26 to 40 years old make up the bulk of not only the sample of respondents, but also the general population of law enforcement officers. They already have sufficient professional experience, but, most likely, due to the lack of the necessary level of higher legal education and the level of development of communicative competencies, they most often resort to verbal aggression to resolve conflict situations in their professional activities.  The decrease in the level of verbal aggression in subsequent age categories is probably due to the acquisition of the necessary level of communicative competencies, life and professional experience, the occupation of higher positions and ranks due to seniority. The increase in the level of verbal aggression to 4.0 in the age category from 51 years old may be due to both the specifics of the age and the personal characteristics of the respondents.

 Rice.3. The level of verbal aggression depending on the level of education

The revealed pattern of the dynamics of the level of verbal aggression depending on the age category finds additional confirmation when analyzing the level of verbal aggression depending on the level of education (Figure 3). So we can observe the lowest level of verbal aggression among students receiving secondary legal education. This contingent of respondents is mainly a sample of up to 25 years old. The highest level of verbal aggression is observed among students receiving their first higher legal education, i.e. their educational level may not be sufficient to resolve conflict situations without the involvement of means of verbal aggression. Respondents who receive a second higher legal education on the basis of the first higher non-legal education have a significantly lower level of verbal aggression, since they often have the necessary repertoire of behavioral strategies that allow them to solve conflict situations in their professional activities without using verbal aggression.

Thus, being a specific form of speech behavior, verbal aggression, on the one hand, promotes psycho-emotional discharge and relieving excess tension, and on the other hand, hinders effective communication, hinders the full exchange of information and the development of a common strategy of interaction due to the lack of behavioral models in the repertoire of other, more effective strategies for resolving conflict situations. 

 The inability to live negative emotions in an environmentally friendly way, the use of verbal aggression as the main way to relieve excess-psycho-emotional tension can help to consolidate it as a pattern of behavior (the habit of acting in a certain way in a certain situation). Such a habit is most dangerous if a law enforcement officer does not have a developed skill of switching between work and home. In other words, using verbal aggression in his professional activity as a way of psychoemotional discharge, a police officer carries this habit into a family in which the negative example of parents, misinterpreted patterns of speech behavior leave an indelible imprint on the formation of the communicative competencies of the younger generation. As a result of such incorrect reading of patterns of speech behavior received in the family, the child often grows up psychologically traumatized, having a distorted idea of communications and broadcasting negative communicative scenarios to others ^{[24, p. 122]}.

Thus, the increase in the general cultural level, erudition, the development of intellectual abilities, emotional and social intelligence contributes to the development of the communicative competence of law enforcement officers, the skills of regulating their psycho-emotional state in stressful conditions of professional communications. Which, in turn, will undoubtedly be a way to prevent verbal aggression both in professional activities and in the circle of family and loved ones.

Further prospects for the development of the topic are seen not only in a more detailed study of personal qualities that affect the manifestation of verbal aggression, but also in the study of the specifics of the manifestation of verbal aggression, depending on the specific activities of police officers.