Taking care of the caregivers: The psychological health and wellness of online child sexual exploitation employees

Policing has been identified as a particularly stressful occupation world-wide (Wiese et al., 2003). Police officers are exposed to operational stressors (e.g. traumatic events) and organizational stressors (e.g. staff... [ view full abstract ]

Policing has been identified as a particularly stressful occupation world-wide (Wiese et al., 2003). Police officers are exposed to operational stressors (e.g. traumatic events) and organizational stressors (e.g. staff shortages and increase in workload), and as a result, may experience a range of stress induced symptoms. While there are vast amounts of literature on the stress response of police officers who have experienced trauma stemming from critical incidents (i.e. officer-involved shootings), there is less research devoted to chronic stressors (such as continuous exposure to child sexual exploitation material), even though these can have as devastating effects on an officer’s physical and psychological well-being (Burns et al., 2008; Holt et al., 2012).

Online child sexual exploitation investigation is a fairly recent area of specialization; many law enforcement agencies worldwide are now devoting specific taskforces to investigate these crimes. Additionally, multiple countries have established hotlines (ie: tiplines) wherein many employees are tasked with reviewing child sexual abuse materials. Maintaining an employee’s health and wellness is vital to the individual, the agency, and to the larger community to serve and protect one of our most vulnerable populations, our children. Employees within these specialized units are often required to view/listen to materials which depict the sexual exploitation of children, in an effort to identify and locate victims and offenders, and to establish jurisdiction and obtain evidence for prosecution. Limited research has been conducted on these employees and the potential stressors they may experience as a result of the nature of this work.

The presentation will: provide an overview of the unique work environments of those involved in the area of online child sexual exploitation; examine some successful coping strategies; and, introduce the Virtual Global Taskforce international health and wellness research study (lead by the presenters).