Personally I did a degree in medicine for two years and then I transferred to a Digital Security/Forensics degree.
One of the main reasons why I didnt want to do medicine was the fact that every doctor will have to learn (sooner or later) to switch off their emotions and I didnt want to do that. I realized how bad that was when my mother came to visit me while I was studying and while she was staying with me she had a heart attack. While she was at the hospital I wasn’t worried, I wasn’t anxious, I was thinking in medical terms and what was happening and because I used to see people like her every day I wasn’t as worried as I should have been, something felt wrong. I realized I was no longer who I used to be, so I decided to transfer.
If you are exposed to the same thing/material very often, you will lose those strong feeling that you had before. It is the same for other careers as well.
When I was much much younger I always used to ask myself "how can porn director/photographer/producer do their job? do they not get excited while directing? " but it is the same, when you see it every day it is nothing special, it is same as yesterday even if that thing is really horrible or wonderful.
This applies everywhere else, so if you want to keep your strong feelings about something or feelings for that matter of fact, then try not to get exposed to it very often.
Wow, this was a really telling piece. You think you know what the computer forensic examiner has to go through, but it's different when someone from the inside actually gives you the low down. I'm thinking of entering this field and it has certainly been an interesting and informative read about the emotional impact of the job.
When I was in the interview for my first CF job (LE) I was asked that "How do you think you will handle Child Exploitation Material?" question and I gave the honest response "I've never been exposed to it before so I don't know". They accepted this answer, but then this was back in 2005 and there wasn't and still isn't much formal training in CF in Australia so they don't really expect new recruits to know exactly what they are getting in to. They accept that you learn on the job and they did supply a 6-monthly chat with a psychologist.
When I moved to the UK I moved to corporate and am now back in Pseudo LE but mainly fraud. So I was only working with CEM for about 2 years. The reason I stopped working in that environment though is because I moved across the world and I am not eligible to work in LE in the UK just yet.
If I am truthful, of course I am glad to not be exposed to the nasty stuff anymore but thankfully for me I believe I did develop the callouses and was able to seperate work from home life. (mental filter still had to come into play in social settings but that's mostly not necessary anymore)
So I would not rule out doing LE work again purely on the CEM basis because as others mentioned there is a certain satisfaction in putting the bad guys away and god knows that was the only thing that allowed my mum to be comfortable with what I was seeing at work!
Does anyone know of any degree courses that include traning on the welfare issues connected with viewing CP?
I am in my second year of a CF degree and viewing CP has only been mentioned on a couple of occasions. All that has been said is that should we come across such material in the future then our employers would help us deal with it. No advice has been given to us by university staff, they have merely said that only a handful of us would ever view such content.
I'm of the generation who has grown up with the Internet through their late teenage years, and most of whom would believe that they desensitized to a lot of things.
But from reading these posts and other articles it would appear that it comes down to the individual, and how well they can manage their work with their emotions.
I work for a manufacturing corporation. Not only do I do Incident response cases, I also deal with policy violations and other HR related complaints.
One of the things that I quickly realised is that as much as I would like to deny it, the employees of my company are really a subset of the population at large. We have good employees and bad employees. I have investigated theft that brought in Law Enforcement, porn (lots of porn) including possible child porn (also involved LE) as well as more banal stuff like "Joe Blow spends too much time on the Internet".
What makes it difficult is that sometimes I know the individuals. That combined with the specifics of the case can be particularly stressful. So far i have been able to deal with it and detach myself from the details.
I have not had to deal with any extreme CP and don't know how I would deal with it if I did. I have the utmost respect and am extremely grateful to those of you that DO deal with the worst of the worst.
Thank you John for addressing this issue so honestly.
We can often find ourselves in a no-mans land when it comes to doing our job. I think your paper describes our struggle eloquently and I feel better for having read it.
Ned
Hi,
As someone who is currently trying to break into the forensics world, I have often found myself wondering which avenue to go down.
Reading this article has certainly opened my eyes further. I've spoken to various directors from the "Big Four" and all have advised me to stay away from the public sector due to the nature of content you would be expected to analyse. It's funny because people in the private sector have said to stay away from the private sector!
I guess ultimately I cannot describe how I will react until I'm faced with such a situation.
Thanks Jonathan for the excellent post!
I had just happened upon this thread and all I can say is, JJI nailed it.
I have been doing digital investigations/forensics for 4 years now and there are two types of people. Those who burn out quick & those that trudge through on. The people that burn out quick, I don't blame them. The ones that keep going do it either because they realize that what they do is important or they have just become immune to it.
One thing that I will add from my own personal experience is, I find it harder to socialize with non-forensicators/investigators (whether LE or not). I guess it is because my "own" understand me.
I know this is an old thread, but it pops up from time to time and this time I feel compelled to contribute.
I think what everyone needs to keep in mind is that the strongest and most important instrument you have in your tool kit is YOU. Your mind, your intellect, your conscience, your soul. We need to realize that under the stress of this job; every now and then that tool may need readjustment, just like any other tool. If you had a tool, a piece of software or equipment, that started to act or react differently, you wouldn't just continue to use it until it broke. You would fix it. YOU are no different.
Recognizing that you're starting to be affected isn't a sign of weakness or a flaw. It's an indicator that you need to do something.
Talk to a wife or girlfriend if you are so blessed as to have one that can relate to where you are.
Talk to a friend, a co-worker or a supervisor, if you can. Sometimes it doesn't need to be anything other than a quiet heart to heart talk over a beer. Many of them have been there before and if nothing else, you'll realize that behind all of those defense mechanisms, you're not any different than others.
Seek spiritual guidance if that's within your belief system.
Seek professional help. There are many counselors out there who are trained to help with workplace stress.
Whatever you do, remember to take care of the most valuable tool in your inventory. YOU. If you’re smart enough to do this job, you’re smart enough to recognize when you have a problem and how to deal with it.
By contributing this, I’m not trying to get all warm and fuzzy with you. I’m a retired LE manager and I’m not really the warm and fuzzy type. What I’m trying to do is give you a technique for dealing with a common workplace problem to protect your investment in time, training, experience and sanity.
Michael W. Picone, EnCE
Reserve Deputy Sheriff
Riverside County Sheriff’s Department
Riverside, CA
John,
I'm right there with ya bud. I did forensic examinations for over 14 years and saw some of the worst stuff possible. I thought I had a handle on coping with the disturbing images until I, and my team, were unceremoniously laid off. That started a domino effect that cost me my house and my sanity for a while. With the onset of the lay-off, depression kicked in which triggered memories of all those graphics and videos I had seen, both in civilian work, as well as military duty.
I went through some lengthy "analysis" by the VA and they concluded that I was suffering from something usually associated with soldiers seeing battle; PTSD. The doctors had never really thought about the "other" ways of seeing battle, like those of us handling all those disturbing pieces of media. In fact, the VA has come out recognizing non-battle induced forms of PTSD. I had been out of the forensics arena for 4 years and now I'm back, but as an instructor. Not too sure I want to go back viewing those things again.
Good luck to you and the rest of the gang we used to work with and let me know if I can help. -)
Al