The thing that gets me more than anything else is that I sit and sometime wonder "What's the point?"
In this day and age in this country unless the person has some REALLY bad stuff on their computer they are given a suspended sentence. The same goes for the majority of the cases we work on. The time, money, and resources spent on bringing people to justice is not mirrored by the judgements passed and the sentence given. The sad thing is that I know of cases where the guy pleads guilty, is given a suspended sentence, then offends again straight away.
Where does the motivation come from then?
Grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change
Courage to change the things I can
and the Wisdom to know the difference.
To me this applies to the criminal justice system very well, like I said before, you can only work on one suspect at a time, you cant change the criminal justice system, but at least when you convict one suspect there are some processes in place to attempt to control that person. If that is all we can do then you have to accept that. there's always the hope that the collection of misfits we call the government will see sense at some point.
and there is always a point, even if one child is helped to get out of an abusive situation, then yes there's the point.
the job we do, although sometimes extremely unpleasant, is very neccessary.
It is an interesting subject - Our team see the "nut nurse" on a six monthly interval.
I think it is hard to tell if say CP has a long term effect, people change anyway and the job environment has an effect (behaviour, language ,frienships made etc) -this effect is mixed up with any specific CP influence along with growing old and becoming a grumpy old bloke.
I'm sure it can't be a postive effect !
I'm certainly more aware now and look at peoples motives more closely (less trusting).
If you can get past the initial giggle factor, I thought the following research seemed highly relevant to this topic
Azrael,
"Individuals who are exposed to images of sexual abuse
on a regular basis should attend a psychological support
scheme. A minimum of one session per year should be
considered and group or individual sessions may be
appropriate or a combination of both of these.
Consider, too, a protocol for 24-hour access
to occupational health and restrict access to the
environment where these images are being viewed."
You guys in the UK have got it made with getting your head shrunk at least once a year!
Frankly, I consider it all psychobabble and a waste of the taxpayers money. I would really worry about continuing to use someone who was really emotionally stressed by sexual abuse.
Many years ago, I sat as a case supervisor for approximately 300 sex offenses per month. That's all I did, 40 hours a week. I did that for one year. I'll admit that it caused me to focus on the behavior of strangers more than normal, but it didn't make me feel stressed or anything like that. Later, when it took over that entire division I reorganized so as to mix all types of crimes against persons. Thus the individual case supervisors would get to vary their caseload so as to include, assaults, homicides and sex offenses.
It is I see it, a lot of this business is dirty and distasteful. That goes with the territory. Working with a computer graphic is only a part of the investigative problem. However, it is indeed a part of that cannot be ignored. I would worry about employing anyone in that capacity who was psychologically challenged by that part of the work.
I am working on a certificate and will begin seriously looking for work in the later part of this year.
But, I know now that working with child porn would break me. If some idiot teenager wants to hawk themself online, that is their problem. But, the idea of little kids being forced in makes me crazy enough now that I know I could not handle dealing with it at work.
Dom
I am working on a certificate and will begin seriously looking for work in the later part of this year.
But, I know now that working with child porn would break me. If some idiot teenager wants to hawk themself online, that is their problem. But, the idea of little kids being forced in makes me crazy enough now that I know I could not handle dealing with it at work.
Dom
Be honest and truthful to yourself and to your employer. If you cannot handle CP, and you know already that you can’t… Do not seek that sector of work. This was said earlier in the thread
The victims and suspects of the cases we work on are owed a fair and truthful evaluation of the evidence.
Steve is spot on IMO. Victims are counting on you, me, us; as a profession in general to help defend or protect them, no matter how grotesque, wrong, vial, or disgusting the content may be. What you’ve said is not a bad thing, it is actually the opposite. You’ve given your statement some thought (I hope) and if that is how you feel then don’t look for work where CP is prevalent. If I were you, I’d look into the private sector, I’m not saying you’ll never encounter it. But it won’t be like an Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) force.
You misunderstood my post. I meant to say, "I am not going into that part of the field for exactly the reasons brought up in this thread."
5 years and never visited a doctor. I have no clue if it has effected me or my co workers. I really don't think it hasn't. Many videos in succession can be painful so as others mentioned I take a break from the case.
I will say I do find it odd when someone in my line of work has issues when dealing with an investigation that deals with CP images. I think it's just par for the course of what we do.
Oddly enough a friend of mine mentioned that there was a talk at DefCon about the psychology of CP and computer forensics. The nutshell was it takes about 2 years to be a proficient examiner and it takes just about that amount of time to have psychological issues related to that type of work.
Who knows really, each person has his or her own psyche. What can completely overwhelm some is just a road bump for others. I do think you have to be honest with yourself and admit if you can't deal with it. I think the issue comes in when you don't want to look weak in front of your peers.
Who knows really, each person has his or her own psyche. What can completely overwhelm some is just a road bump for others. I do think you have to be honest with yourself and admit if you can't deal with it. I think the issue comes in when you don't want to look weak in front of your peers.
I guess I had a weak psyche. Because I had a talent for computers, my department pointed at me and said…you're our new forensics guy. I was trained up by the feds and then viewed hundreds/thousands images/videos a day. Six months in I stopped bringing my gun to arrests. I didn't want to kill the pedophile. People noticed, but nothing was said. After all, cops are tough. BobbieNYC is right."..you don't want to look weak in front of your peers", but you especially don't want to tell yourself that you're weak. So you suck it up.
10 months in I asked to be mandated to EAP counseling asap. The chief refused, saying it would be a negative blotch on my career record. Essentially, 'Man up'. 'Take a short vacation and you'll be ok'. I tried. Came back for a couple days and went out per the department physician. Never went back. I was placed on workers comp. The department never fought it, just 'give it to him'. PTSD and Major Depression. nightmares, aggression, pills to put me to sleep, pills to wake me up.
If you think that CP might affect you, you're probably right. If you take the forensics position, talk to someone regularly. It won't be your wife or friends because how can you describe CP to regular folk? Find a professional, but be honest and make regular appts. One appt. every year wouldn't have helped me.