Abstract Child sexual exploitation (CSE) investigators are required to view thousands of sexually graphic images involving children as part of their daily work, raising concerns about possible harmful occupational health effects. We administered a battery of 24 psychological scales to 141 current CSE investigators and 106 investigators engaged in other areas of policing. Fourteen scales focused on potential psychological outcomes of the investigators’ roles (burnout, post-traumatic stress, post-traumatic growth, depression, anxiety, stress, and physical symptoms) and ten focused on factors that may act as protective or risk factors for psychological distress (well-being, psychological mindedness, self-sacrifice, role overload, work engagement, and social identity). The first analysis compared the two groups on all scales. It was found that in some areas CSE investigators experienced greater levels of distress and had more risk factors than other investigators (disengagement burnout, lack of post-traumatic growth, role overload, and low identification with the organisation), but on most measures there was no significant difference between the two groups, suggesting that some of the sources of work stress may be generic to policing. The second analysis examined the extent to which measures of psychological distress were predicted by the other psychometric scales and socio-demographic variables. The prediction models differed between the two groups, suggesting that there different protective and risk factors for each group. For CSE investigators, psychological mindedness and ‘vigorous’ work engagement emerged as key protective factors while role overload was the main risk factor. The results have implications for the selection, monitoring, and management of CSE investigators.
Wortley et al. (Fri,) studied this question.
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