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Coping Strategies

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finbarr
(@finbarr)
Posts: 26
Eminent Member
 

On the subject of preparatory support, I'm not sure how much help this would be. I think the best thing to do for someone new to this area would be to spend a few hours with an experienced child abuse investigator who can tell them what to expect and where to find it.

The psych people typically can't help very much in this regard - they are simply looking for the early signs of stress resulting from continued exposure to this material. Things like mood swings and sleeplesness for example. I find our sessions to be quite theraputic but I think on a day to day basis you're much better off having another analyst in the lab with you that you can discuss things with. The gradual and often release of stress rather than a single explosive event once a year.

Kind regards,
John.

 
Posted : 23/07/2007 3:32 pm
philjb
(@philjb)
Posts: 1
New Member
Topic starter
 

Hi all,

Just wondered what "coping strategies" people have in order to stop the stresses from dealing with kinds of depraved material often encountered in CF (e.g. CP) from spilling over into your personal lives and affecting you emotionally.

For example, for one LEA I worked for I had a uniform and I was able to compartmentalise things such that when I took the uniform off all the stressful stuff I had worked on went with it.

Thoughts anyone?

philjb

 
Posted : 07/03/2008 1:30 pm
(@jonathan)
Posts: 878
Prominent Member
 

This is a really important area of CF but often brushed over. Personally, sometimes I thought it wasn't negatively affecting me then out of the blue I'd be hit by a certain movie clip or picture - it didn't necessarily have to be 'worse' or more extreme than the others which was the strange thing. Perhaps you're in the position to ask that your next job wont involve IIOC.

It happened seldomly but if it did I think you have to step back from that job and take a break. Talking to colleagues is probably the best as they are most likely to understand and give you good advice. This would certainly be preferable to keeping it inside and not discussing it.

On another point, since becoming a parent for the first time last August, I think I'd find it difficult to go back and view/grade IIOC.

 
Posted : 07/03/2008 1:46 pm
steve862
(@steve862)
Posts: 194
Estimable Member
 

Hi,

Just to throw my 2p into the cauldron.

Jonathan and I both came into CF at the same time and we worked for the same employer back then. His suggestions are all spot on but I'd like to expand on things a little (as I tend to do).

I think part of coping (with anything) is down to a number of things, need to cope, determination to cope etc. We can of course begin dealing with CP with a determination to cope with it.

One of the things I found was that almost all of the images and video clips I have seen in my first 4 or 5 years I had seen in my first 6 months. To some extent having seen the images and video clips before helps, firstly because I can just categorise them without looking too hard and secondly because I know what you are going to see.

CP cases can be some of the most technically involved. I just gave evidence in a rape case and my report and my testimony was only about 5% of the evidence in the case. With all the CP cases I have worked on that went to court, 95% of the evidence tendered was mine. That's a massive responsibility and when you factor in a possible (or many) victim(s) of hands-on abuse, by that suspect, you realise the influence you hold over people's lives, including your suspect.

Considering the technical details you need to analyse, i.e. how did it get there? did the suspect seek out this sort of material? when did it first appear on the exhibits? what actions has the suspect taken since they appeared on the exhibits? can I link exhibits together? are there other possible users of the exhibits that are responsible? etc, etc, etc ,etc etc……….you tend to focus more on the technical aspects rather than the images. I can level images very quickly, having done it so often. In the UK images and video files are categorised into levels based on their severity. Having found the images and done that, usually there is no reason to go back to them.

One of the considerations when dealing with images and videos is whether the suspect created them. Once you've seen a lot of CP you start to notice ones you haven't seen before. You flag these up to the investigating officer and this may lead to a victim being identified. A chance to save a life! perhaps literally.

Is there intelligence of use on the exhibits that might identify other offenders or other victims? On several occasions further arrests have come from one examination I did, in two occasions victims, previously unknown to us were identified and rescued. How worth it is that?

It's also nice to be told about the success stories from time to time. I recently spoke to a victim identification officer in the UK and he told me about a girl who had recently been identified in the US. The girl had appeared in quite a large number of some of the worst images and videos I've ever seen but knowing there will never be any more of her maybe gives her hope, and maybe us too.

I do think the way in which your work is organised is important too. Sanitised working conditions means setting up the office physically and socially in the right way. If at any time you see something that upsets you just stop looking at images, take a 5 minutes break and start something else if you can. Sometimes because of time constraints you will have to go back to where you left off but there will be plenty of occasions when you could do some imaging, or study the internet history or something like that for the remainder of the day.

I think if you need to cope, want to cope etc you will find a way to cope. Perhaps you need to be an optimist at least to have that attitude.

Jonathan mentions not wanting to go back to having to do CP jobs now he is a father. I wouldn't say it is harder necessarily being a parent and doing this job. I have 3 young kids and have had the entire time I've worked in this field. Perhaps it's more a case of not wanting to know how depraved some people in the world are as you raise a family to be optimists themselves. I suspect Police Officers dealing with murder, rape etc suffer from that same challenge.

It is a fair point of discussion this topic. There are a lot of people who want to get into CF it seems. CF isn't necessarily a financial gravy train by any means and it's likely that at some point in your career you are going to deal with CP work. So you want to consider this issue very carefully before you commit to a CF degree, or any other training which is designed to get you into this career.

I think CP jobs offer a real challenge to me, often technically but also as an individual. I think CP jobs also offer the greater rewards because you can literally save lives. Because most of the evidence in CP cases will be down to you as the analyst, the cases stand or fall on the quality of your work.

Steve

 
Posted : 07/03/2008 3:41 pm
Jamie
(@jamie)
Posts: 1288
Moderator
 

A very important topic. I've merged this thread with the earlier discussion (thanks Minesh) and stickied it.

Jamie

 
Posted : 07/03/2008 5:12 pm
mark777
(@mark777)
Posts: 101
Estimable Member
 

Jonathan makes an excellent point that I have come across several times in the years I have done this job and that is officers dealing with this subject who have children themselves sometimes find it impossible to look at the evidence we produce especially if their child happens to be the same age as the subject of the evidence.

Where we have an officer who is dealing with this for the first time I always make a point of sitting them down and going through the evidence with them to make sure they understand it and to make sure they can handle looking at it. I have done this since an incident about 4 years ago where an interviewing officer saw the evidence for the first time in interview and on being confronted with the first Cat 4 movie couldnt handle it and walked out of the interview leaving the suspect and his solicitor with the computer and evidence.

Now if I think the interviewing officer cant handle it I will actually say to their supervisory officer and offer to sit in on the interview. Its not ideal from our time point of view but I think we sometimes forget that not everyone is as used to this stuff as we are and we also have a responsibility to consider the welfare of others involved in these matters (in my view). This problem is compounded in LE with the macho culture that stops coppers from actually saying they can't do it and trying to struggle through.

In respect of an examiners welfare I think the examiner themselves must be able to acknowledge at times they have had enough and need a break. In our office (there are two of us) what we tend to do when that happens is shut the case down for a couple of days and do a nice fraud or something just for a break.

Still, after 9 years of it I only have 264 working days left to retirement and a bit of relaxation maybe.

 
Posted : 08/03/2008 4:08 am
(@harky)
Posts: 9
Active Member
 

I am curious to hear what others' opinions on Steve862's comment about the rewards of doing CP cases are.

As I am starting to pursue CF as a career, I have been thinking a lot about what aspect I would like to go into (corporate side vs. law enforcement), and CP is of course something that people bring up when I mention wanting to go law enforcement side. Now, I have not experienced having to deal with it, but it would seem to me that the benefits of knowing that you are helping to catch those producing, trading, collecting, etc. CP would outweigh the negatives.

One interesting thought that came to my mind would be that if you do find that the benefits outweigh the negatives (i.e. stress or emotional pain, etc.) does anyone have an opinion about how successful you have to be for the benefits to triumph? Does just catching one perp or rescuing one victim make it worth it? Or do you need to be successful 50% of the time for it to not wear you down?

I'm sure all of these issues can vary greatly from one investigator to another, but I think it would be interesting to see what some different takes on this issue are.

 
Posted : 22/04/2008 9:34 pm
griffy46
(@griffy46)
Posts: 11
Active Member
 

Hi, dont know if this would be of any use to anyone else, but when I find child abuse images on a subject PC, my thought immediately is "Now I got you with luck you're going to jail" and each additional image is another nail to hold him there. That way I can cope with what I see, and read. Generally we also try to intersperse CAI cases with other stuff like fraud etc. We have a councillor who comes every two months or so, but I sometimes find this a little awkward, and although very pleasant and a good listener etc, I dont know her well enough to tell every thing.
As for the level of success, just the positive result of the current case is enough, you are never going to eradicate even 10% of them, so work on the principal that each one you put away is one less out there.
Although I'm sure corporate work would be financially rewarding, the "rewards" of the law enforcement side can be far more satisfying.

 
Posted : 05/10/2008 12:56 am
(@dficsi)
Posts: 283
Reputable Member
 

I have been investigating these kinds of cases for two and a half years now. When I started our little girl was only two and our son wasn't born yet. I have had times when I've been disgusted at some of the things that I've seen to the point where I've just had to shut off my screens and go for a short walk. I don't plan on doing these kinds of cases my whole life but I don't have a problem doing them unless they are large cases or I get a lot of them in short space of time. When this happens its more depressing then disturbing. I think it can be quite easy to become cynical and lose faith in humanity at times, but that's when I come home to my wonderful little family, making me forget about work.

When doing cases like this it can be easy to think 'This guys going down, and I'm going to make sure of it'. I've fallen into that trap before and it is unproductive an dangerous. You lose your objectivity and, once that's gone, it is very difficult to get it back. This can put the whole investigation at risk or even cause an innocent party a great deal of distress.

 
Posted : 05/10/2008 10:10 pm
griffy46
(@griffy46)
Posts: 11
Active Member
 

I think you mis-understand my motivation. Unlike yours my only son is almost fully grown so I dont have that sort of additional "pressure" if that is the correct term to use. I have investigated CAI cases where I have found that the alleged offender was "set up" by a disgruntled Ex. Even though I found references and indications, you can only present what is there and where possible where it came from.
I understand where you are coming from but I find that the majority of CAI cases I get the alleged offender is responsible, and I get huge satisfaction from proving that.
I suppose it's a case of horses for courses and what ever works for each individual is OK so long as it gets you through the day.
This is my coping strategy and it works for me, as I'm sure yours works for you.
It's always good for me to hear the thoughts and opinions of others you never know what you might learn. Cheers
D
Griff

 
Posted : 06/10/2008 2:13 pm
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