An exploration of the personal experiences of digital forensics analysts who work with child sexual abuse material on a daily basis: "you cannot unsee the darker side of life".

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Digital forensics analysts are a specialist group of police officers who are involved in investigating cases of online child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA), and identifying and classifying child sexual abuse material (CSAM) according to levels of severity, respectively. The existing literature that has examined this phenomenon suggests that this group of police officers are at greater risk of psychological harm as a result of being exposed to CSAM, and that working with this type of material has the potential to significantly affect their mental health and wellbeing.

Methods

The study presented here used Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to explore digital forensics analysts' personal experiences of working in this role, and with CSAM, on a da

SUBMITTER: Strickland C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10292749 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature