Police investigating child abuse have higher rates of depression and anxiety

A new study suggests that police investigating Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) experience higher levels of depression and anxiety than other officers.

The research, which was published in Depression and Anxiety, is part of ‘Protecting the Protectors’; a project aiming to capture the thoughts and experiences of police officers and staff investigating child abuse.

The study, which was conducted by researchers at the University of Portsmouth, University of Southampton, and the International Policing and Public Protection Research Institute at Anglia Ruskin University, is the largest and most comprehensive study on the mental health of CSAM investigators to date.

The research revealed that feeling successful and supported at work can act as a protective factor alongside utilising coping mechanisms such as positive refocusing, seeking distraction, and social support which is effective in improving mental health.

Professor Peter Lee, Professor of Applied Ethics in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice  at the University of Portsmouth and co-author of the study said: “We are learning more about how police and support staff who work to protect children from terrible abuse - and investigate the most unimaginable acts - are affected by the work they do. As a society, we need to recognise their efforts and ensure that the best support is in place for them, both now and in the future.”

As part of the study, 661 UK police officers and staff were recruited in order to assess risk and protective factors, moral injury, coping mechanisms, and mental health outcomes.

Dr Paul Conway, lead author and psychologist at the University of Southampton added: “Our research suggests that the biggest challenge faced by police protecting children from predators is surprisingly not the material they process or contact with victims and perpetrators—it appears to be the amount of support they receive (or not) from their colleagues, bosses, and organisations.”

Key findings from the study include:

• 27.7 per cent of CSAM investigators may have depression - a substantially higher rate than experienced by typical police officers (9.8 per cent), even those exposed to recent trauma (17.8 per cent).
• Rates of generalised anxiety were also much higher (at 24.2 per cent) amongst CSAM investigators compared to UK police at large (8.5 per cent) and amongst officers with recent trauma (16.4 per cent). 
• PTSD rates were in line with other branches of the force at 8.7 per cent, suggesting that PTSD may be less of a problem than depression and anxiety for these officers.

The researchers were particularly interested in how investigating CSAM might lead to moral injury and damage to a person’s moral sense of self, where harm is experienced or observed which violates one’s moral values and where they know the morally right response but are powerless to act. 

There are different aspects to moral injury, but the research found feelings of betrayal by colleagues and institutions were the strongest predictor of increased depression, anxiety and PTSD.

This finding was mirrored by the fact that feeling successful and supported was strongly associated with reduced moral injury, depression, anxiety, and PTSD, and increased wellbeing.

Dr Conway added: “A key implication of this is that colleagues and institutions have a large role to play in how investigators manage the stresses and challenges of dealing with CSAM.

“When colleagues and organisations support individuals, things tend to go well, but when they undermine them, things go poorly. This seems to matter more than any other factor we assessed. 

“While risk factors like exposure to CSAM predicted increased moral injury, and interactions with victims and perpetrators predicted depression, anxiety, and PTSD, the size of these effects was dwarfed by the powerful positive effect of job success and professional support.”

Researchers also looked at the different strategies investigators used to cope which included social withdrawal and ignoring the problem which predicted worse mental health, while seeking distraction and social support predicted better outcomes.

As expected, self-blame, rumination and catastrophising also predicted worse mental health, while positive refocusing (reframing a situation with a positive mindset) was linked to reduced depression. 

For that reason, people who are struggling may want to reach out and connect rather than trying to manage the struggle on their own. 

The researchers hope to build on these findings with follow-up work clarifying how best to aid those officers and staff who experience low wellbeing.