Development and initial psychometric evaluation of an adapted Moral Injury Events Scale for Law Enforcement (MIES-LE)

Moral injury (MI) occurs in a variety of serving occupations including among law enforcement professionals (LEP). MI was originally described among military veterans as distress arising from a violation of one’s morals and values. Historically, MI measurement was not informed by the perspectives of those who experience it, and validation of measures was limited to military or veteran populations. Informed by a grounded theory of MI among LEP, we adapted a military MI measure for LEP. Using exploratory factor analysis (EFA), we examined the factor structure of the Moral Injury Events Scale for Law Enforcement (MIES-LE) and propose a 6-factor, 19-item MIES-LE: direct and indirect betrayals, transgressive acts, witnessed transgressions, weathering, and global perceptions of trust. The MIES-LE demonstrates construct validity, internal consistency (α = 0.84), and is a parsimonious measure to assess the exposure to potentially morally injurious experiences and MI distress among LEP in research and applied settings.