Police Officers’ Perceptions of their Reactions to Viewing Internet Child Exploitation Material

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to extend prior research on the impact of working in the area of Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) investigation by exploring ICE investigators' perceptions of and reactions to viewing child exploitation material. A diverse sample of 32 ICE investigators across all nine Australian jurisdictions individually participated in anonymous in-depth interviews. Participants were asked to discuss their subjective experience of viewing ICE material and its effect on them and to describe a case that evoked an adverse reaction, the nature of the reaction, and the characteristics of the material that contributed to it. The results revealed that ICE investigators experience salient emotional, cognitive, social and behavioural consequences due to viewing ICE material and their reactions can be short and long term. The degree of negative impact appears to vary markedly across individuals, types and content of material and viewing context, with variation based on individual, case-related and contextual factors both in and outside the workplace.

Understanding and supporting law enforcement professionals working with distressing material: Findings from a qualitative study

“…Social support was another important factor in LEP's well-being. This view is supported by research which found social support decreases STS symptoms in members of LE [27,28] and is concurred by other LEP's reports [6,8,9,14] and by psychological models of resilience [72,73]. For the LEP in this study, social support included the formal support offered by management and during therapy and informal peer support.…”

“…Depictions of violence, the victims' displays of emotions, features personally relevant to LEP, norm violations and the medium of the material strongly modulated LEP's affective responses. These factors were also reported by other members of LE exposed to distressing material [6][7][8][9][10]14] and are corroborated by empirical research [36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45], suggesting the results are generalizable. In line with previous research in law enforcement [6-10, 14, 46], LEP's initial reaction to this material was one of distress.…”

“…This is possibly because these activities are not able to single-handedly combat STS but rather act by boosting the efficacy of other procedures [84]. LEP in this study and in previous studies [6,8,9,14] talked about these factors in relation to their lives, indicating awareness of the role and impact they have on their resilience. Unfortunately, having this awareness does not necessarily equate with actual engagement in self-care activities [83].…”

“…A few of the LEP in our study showed concerns regarding these effects and worried that desensitisation will lead to changes in their "moral compass". These fears were also discussed in Powell et al [9] in relation to members of LE having developed an "un-empathetic and flippant attitude" because of having viewed distressing material.…”

Investigation of Indecent Images of Children cases: Challenges and suggestions collected from the trenches

“…shock, distress, sadness, powerlessness, guilt), the experience of unwanted and intrusive thoughts and memories of images viewed, altered behaviour towards partners and children, and increased cynicism and suspiciousness of others [46,42]. These studies highlight the need to ensure provision of effective supervision and support to staff working in these areas [42,43,47].…”