Cognitive and Emotional Stressors of Child Homicide Investigations on U.K. and Danish Police Investigators

Well-Being and the Police Investigator

Much of the existing literature on police well-being can be categorized into two areas: the first being the impact of organizational stressors, for example, bureaucracy and its effect on well-being (Violanti et al., 2017), and the second being the impact of different operational stressors linked to various roles and functions within policing. Operational stressors more commonly refer to the nature of the police work, for example, being exposed to traumatic events such as road traffic collisions (RTA) or incidents of domestic violence (DV). This is the principal focus of stress generation explored in the current study, primarily the cognitive and emotional effects experienced by police homicide investigators. To our knowledge, operational stress remains an underresearched area of the cause of police stress when compared with organizational factors, such as the allocation of resources and wider working conditions.

Such stressors can certainly negatively affect officers’ well-being with, in the most severe of cases, continuous exposure to traumatic events resulting in individuals experiencing depression or PTSD (Greenberg, Brooks, & Dunn, 2015). When one considers the common operational duties of homicide investigators, then it is safe to state that the danger of exposure to both primary (e.g., being continually exposed to the death of a human being) and secondary trauma, which occurs through indirect exposure (e.g., hearing accounts from witnesses and family and friends about the death of a loved one), is likely to be different and more acute than for those working in other areas of policing (e.g., policing crowds or working on burglary investigations). It is important to state here that it is not only the case that exposure to primary traumatic events can produce severe mental distress and a deterioration in officers’ well-being, but that exposure to secondary traumatic events can also result in traumatic symptoms, posing a real danger for homicide investigators (Figley, 1995; Newell & MacNeil, 2010; Roach et al., 2017).

To reiterate, to our knowledge, research is yet to capture the prevalence of problematic symptoms associated with severe psychopathologies, such as depression and PTSD, specifically with homicide investigators. Previous research has, however, identified high levels of PTSD with uniformed officers (more routine policing roles), with a previous U.K. study suggesting that 15% of males and 18% of female uniformed officers reporting as having had experienced PTSD (Hartly, Sarkisian, Violanti, Andrew, & Burchfiel, 2013).

Regarding the development of less severe psychopathologies, the homicide investigator is arguably most susceptible to operational “stress” (Roach et al., 2017). Lazarus and Folkman (1984) define stress as “a particular relationship between the person and the environment that is appraised by the person as taxing or exceeding his or her resources and endangering his or her well-being” (p. 19). Several studies have shown that a higher prevalence of stress-related problems are found among police officers than in the general public, sometimes manifesting as heart disease, cancer, alcohol dependency, drug abuse, and divorce (e.g., Anshel, 2000; Kohan & O’Connor, 2002; Violanti, 2005). Police personnel work in a multitude of different circumstances, environments, and contexts, which differ in the levels of stress that they can generate and can increase the risk of “burnout” (Hawkins, 2001; Kurtz, 2008; Padyab, Backteman-Erlanson, & Brulin, 2016; Taris, Kompier, Geurts, Houtman, & van den Heuvel, 2010).

Although research to date has explored how some police duties often produce “work-related stress,” such as attending road traffic accidents and exposure to critical incidents involving a death (e.g., see He, Zhao, & Archbold, 2002; Liberman et al., 2002), little has focused on the different types and levels of work-related stress experienced by criminal investigators and, more specific, those investigating homicide. Salo and Allwood (2011) suggest that although officers on patrol have stressful events imposed on them from the outside and in real time (e.g., breaking up a fight at a bar), stress experienced by criminal investigators “may still be very real,” for example, when meeting the families of murder victims (p. 98). Fyhn, Fjell, and Johnsen (2016), echo this distinction in their identification of subjective threats, as criminal investigators have to deal directly with the victims of serious and violent crimes, their next of kin, graphic depictions of dead bodies, and the ensuing media attention (p. 261).

Four different categories of “police stressors” have been suggested: (a) those extrinsic to the organization, (b) occupational (i.e., task/job related), (c) personal, and (d) organizational (e.g., Abdollahi, 2002; Finn & Tomz, 1996; Hart, Wearing, & Headey, 1993). Again, however, such research has tended to focus solely on frontline (uniformed) police, such as the effects of dealing with calls for service and patrolling, or on organizational factors such as staffing levels (Fyhn et al., 2016), and not on the effects of criminal investigations on those doing the investigating (Roach et al., 2017).

Identifying differences in types and levels of stress experienced by police investigators of different types of crime has received even less attention. Fyhn et al. (2016) studied how different investigators deal with different types of victim trauma in a study of Norwegian police investigators who were assigned to one of two groups: those who investigated “assault crime” and those who investigated “fire, forensics, financial, and environmental” crime. Of primary interest was hardiness, a personality style found to influence an individual’s ability to cope with stressors in constructive ways, comprising three factors: challenge, control, and commitment (Kobasa, Maddi, & Kahn, 1982). “Commitment” was found to be significantly higher in those who investigated assault crimes than the fire, forensics, financial, and environmental crime investigators (Fyhn et al., 2016). In addition, the assault crime investigators reported significantly higher levels of social support available to them, higher levels of meaningfulness (with regard to how they perceived the work they do), and higher levels of subjective health problems, than those from the other group (Fyhn et al., 2016). “Social support” (e.g., work colleagues and family) in the work environment and “hardiness-commitment” were found to be particularly important when explaining the resilience to stress reported by the “assault crime” investigator group.

Dealing With the Unthinkable Again: Investigating Suspicious Child Death

Police investigators are not robots. The investigation of homicide is likely to produce emotional stressors, which can adversely affect their decision making. Much of the research to date has tended to focus on different types of cognitive bias that can impede, or even derail a criminal investigation (e.g., Ask & Granhag, 2007; Rossmo, 2009; Stelfox & Pease, 2005), for example, the timing and mode of critical decision making in criminal investigation have been researched, including investigator “intuition” (Wright, 2013), and in the identification of common “tipping points” in a decision to charge a suspect in homicide investigations (Fahsing & Ask, 2013).

Procedural guidance for U.K. police investigators has been available for more than a decade, exemplified by the Murder Investigation Manual (Association of Chief Police Officers of England and Wales, 2006), and Practice Advice for Core Investigative Doctrine (ACPO, 2005a,b). Such guidance does not exist in Danish Policing. None of the U.K. guides, however, provides any kind of “guidance” on how investigators are to identify and deal with the stressors likely to be generated by the investigation of homicide, so in this respect, U.K. and Danish homicide investigators share a level playing field. This may seem somewhat surprising if one considers that the growing research in this area continues to identify emotional stress as the most common influence on erroneous decision making and, subsequently, in investigative failure (e.g., Rossmo, 2009; Stelfox & Pease, 2005).

Extant research on how police might deal or cope with the emotional and cognitive stressors they experience as a result of doing their jobs is not particularly helpful and relates principally to more mainstream police duties. As, for example, Waters and Ussery (2007) suggest, “obviously, the inherent nature of police work precludes the immediate discharge of emotions. It is certainly not appropriate behaviour for a police officer who has been given the responsibility of maintaining stability in others to ventilate in public” (p. 172). A case of keep it all in we fear.

Some police officers do of course deal and indeed cope with the stresses and strains of their roles in “positive ways,” despite their more common fictional depiction as hard-drinking, emotional wrecks in many a compelling police film and drama series. Interestingly, there is suggestion of a curve–linear relationship between the amount of police work experience and the level of stress reported, with those with minimal and extensive job experience reported as being less likely to consider their job or role as stressful (e.g., Violanti, 1983). A possible explanation for this is that the former may not yet have been in post long enough to be significantly detrimentally affected, and the latter have somehow “hardened” and learned to live or cope with it.

Waters, Irons, and Finkle (1982) suggest that stress can be categorized according to the source of responsibility, the individual officer, and the Department. Of most interest to the present article are the individual coping strategies they identify:

In a recent article, Roach et al. (2017) found quantitative differences in the cognitive and emotional effects experienced by police investigators according to whether the victim was a child(ren) or an adult(s), with homicide investigators reporting that they had experienced different (and more acute) emotional effects when the victim was a child. In this study, 99 detectives from across the United Kingdom who had experience of investigating both adult and child homicides completed an online survey. Acute emotional stress experienced was reported to be more likely when investigating a child homicide compared with an adult, and did not appear to lessen (or indeed get easier to deal with), the more exposed to child death they became. If the well-being of investigators is to be preserved, it is imperative that a more rigorous understanding of how investigators function, make decisions, and cope with the emotional and cognitive effects generated by investigations into child homicides is achieved.

The Present Article

The present article provides a qualitative exploration of different cognitive and emotional stressors experienced by police homicide investigators, depending on whether the victim is an adult or a child. Eleven semistructured interviews with experienced police investigators from the United Kingdom and Denmark were conducted using a thematic framework developed by Roach et al. (2017), which focused on five key cognitive and emotional stressors identified in relation to suspicious child death investigations: investigative challenges, pressure to conclude investigations quickly, emotional and cognitive stressors, dealing and coping, and training and support for investigators.

Participants

Participants for the present study were recruited from two police services located in two European capital cities in Denmark and Wales. The inclusion criterion for participants for the present study was that the investigator must have experience of working on both adult and child homicide investigations. Both with the present article and in a previous sister paper (Roach et al., 2017), participants were asked the age at which they thought a homicide became an adult homicide, and was found unanimously that a child was considered a victim of homicide when below 18 years of age. This was used to define child victims with all participants and will be used to delineate child from adult homicide victims and investigations hereafter.

Detailed in Table 1 are the demographic characteristics for the cohort of investigator participants included in the present study.

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Table 1.

Participant Demographics.

Participant	Gender	Age	Has own children?	Years in police force	Investigation experience	Approximate number of adult homicides	Approximate number of child deaths	Years since last child case	Number of cold cases
									Adult	Child
Den1	Male	55	Yes	30	21	15-16	4	Unknown	Unknown	0
Den2	Male	59	Yes	31	21	6-7	1	6	Unknown	Unknown
Den3	Male	62	Yes	40	37	50	10	1	5	0
Den4	Male	56	Yes	35	26	50	1	21	4-5	0
Den5	Male	30	Expecting	8	2	1	1	Currently investigating	0	0
Den6	Male	58	Yes	35	29	50	2	Currently investigating	4	0
UK1	Male	62	Yes	36	33	At least 120	10-12	10 for last new case but now on cold cases	Unknown	Unknown
UK2	Female	37	No	15	13	45-50	5	Currently investigating	Unknown	Unknown
UK3	Male	47	Yes	21	18	30-40	2	Currently investigating	1	0
UK4	Female	47	Yes	26	5	15-20	2-3	Currently investigating	0	0
UK5	Female	42	Yes	17	9	6-8	1	Almost 2	0	0

In the U.K. police cohort, five out of six homicide investigators who met the criteria of having experience of both child and adult homicide investigations were interviewed, and six out of six from the Danish police service. In defense of what might be perceived to be a rather small sample size, the low number of child homicides in each country meant that investigators with experience of both child and adult homicide investigations are mercifully rare, even though we chose police investigators from two European capital cities. As shall be discussed later, a probable next step is to interview investigators from countries with higher child homicide rates than the United Kingdom and Denmark, but in relation to the present article; 11 investigators from two different European cities were considered suitable for an exploratory study of this nature.

The two police services were selected as they have similar population numbers they police, but not, however, for rates of homicide. The reason for selecting Danish investigators and not those from other European countries, although admittedly partly influenced by opportunity, was due to the fact that child homicide is somewhat rarer in Denmark than in the United Kingdom, thereby affording some comparison of the effects on investigator well-being of both common and uncommon exposure with the cognitive and emotional effects of child homicide investigations.

As can be seen in Table 1, all the Danish investigators were male, whereas two of the five from the United Kingdom were male. The median age of the investigators was 55 years (M = 50.45 years, SD = 10.68 years) and the average amount of time spent in police service was 27.45 years (SD = 11.18 years). Five out of six Danish officers were men in their late 50s to early 60s and had children of their own (five were grandfathers) with the one, considerably younger, remaining Danish investigator expecting his first child within 3 months of the interview. Only one of the five U.K. officers did not have children, and of the four who did, all but one had children of school age or younger.

The average amount of time served as a police officer for all participants (not limited to homicide investigation) was 19.45 years (SD = 11.38 years), indicating that all were experienced police officers, if not experienced homicide investigators. The number of adult homicide investigations that the 11 participants had been involved with varied substantially from two to more than 120 homicide investigations, with the mean number of adult homicide investigations found to be 36.20 (SD = 34.02). Unsurprisingly, the mean number of adult homicide investigations for the Danish investigators was found to be 28.67 (SD = 23.82), whereas for the U.K. investigators it was 45.30 (SD = 44.63), reflecting the difference in the homicide rates in the United Kingdom and Denmark.

With regard to experience of investigating child homicide, the number varied from one to 12 investigations, with the mean number investigated being 3.60 (SD = 3.62) and the mean number of child homicide investigations for Danish officers predictably lower (M = 3.00, SD = 3.55) than for their U.K. counterparts (M = 4.3, SD = 4.02). The participants differed with regard to the length of time since they had last been involved in a child homicide investigation, with two out of the six Danish investigators and three out of the five U.K. officers currently involved with homicide investigations where the victim(s) was a child. Of those not currently involved in a child homicide investigation, the average amount of time since they had was found to vary from 1 to 21 years. The number of adult homicide investigations reported as remaining undetected (i.e., cold cases) was found to be different for individual investigators, varying for Danish investigators from zero to five cases, whereas for U.K. investigators, five out of six officers had at least one undetected case remaining. No investigator from either country reported being involved with an undetected (i.e., unsolved) child homicide.

Procedure

A semistructured interview approach was used, with the interview schedule informed as previously stated by the findings of Roach et al.’s (2017) study. The first section of the interview collected investigator demographics with the following set of questions focused on individual investigator experiences of adult and child homicide, for example, their perceptions of what defines child homicide, their different investigative experiences, accounts of their most recent adult and child homicide investigations, and finally whether they thought that having children (i.e., being a parent) had ever affected how they approached and thought about child homicide investigations? The third part of the interview focused on the cognitive and emotional effects police investigators felt that they had experienced when investigating suspicious child deaths and how they had dealt or deal with them both in and outside of work.

Official permissions were obtained from both police forces before any individual was approached. All potential participants were provided with an information sheet explaining the purpose of the study and what their participation would entail. All willing participants were asked to sign a consent form prior to taking part in the interviews. All interviews were conducted in person and were digitally (audio) recorded and later transcribed verbatim. During the interviews conducted in Denmark, a police translator was available to assist all the participants with their answers, as English was obviously not their first language, and to ensure that there were no misunderstandings.

Method of Analysis

Qualitative description (Sandelowski, 2000) was chosen as the most appropriate method of analysis for the data in the present study, as it is a low-in-inference approach that does not seek to probe for underlying meanings within data. As Sandelowski describes, qualitative description is a methodology that is primarily concerned with presenting findings in “everyday language” (Sandelowski, 2000, p. 336). A directed qualitative content analysis procedure was adopted, whereby codes were generated on an interview-by-interview basis, and then recorded by hand as opposed to using a qualitative analysis program. As this article was a follow-up to a previous explorative paper, it was decided that the analysis should be directed by the themes found previously, to aid with the identification of key concepts and variables that were used as initial coding categories (Potter & Levine-Donnerstein, 1999). Upon analysis of the codes generated previously, five main categories/themes emerged that related to challenges associated with suspicious child death investigations; the pressure to conclude a child homicide investigation; the existence of emotional consequences of investigating child homicides; the methods of coping with such emotional consequences; and the current and future training and support needs of police homicide investigators. These five areas form the structure of the following “Findings and Discussion” section.

The Challenges Associated With Investigating Suspicious Child Death

To begin, all investigators were invited to consider whether the challenges associated with investigations into suspicious child deaths/homicides differed from the challenges encountered during the investigation of adult homicides. For the Danish investigators, there was a consensus that investigations into suspicious child deaths/homicides were not necessarily always more complex than adult homicides. The complexity of an investigation was considered to vary from case to case according to factors including the ease with which the cause of death can be established, the availability of witnesses, and the potential number of suspects. Although U.K. investigators agreed that each case presented its own unique set of challenges, they felt that cases involving the suspicious death of a young infant, in particular, were likely to present more challenges.

Commonly, U.K. investigators felt that in the case of adult homicides, identifying injuries and, therefore, the cause of death, was usually straightforward (e.g., stab wounds or strangulation). However, where the victim was an infant, injuries were more likely to be internal and, therefore, making identification of the cause of death less clear. Whereas it might be obvious that an adult’s death was not accidental, they highlighted that it was considerably more difficult to establish whether an infant’s injuries were accidental or maliciously inflicted (e.g., as a result of shaking) and reported that, in some cases, they had waited up to a year to receive a coroner’s report. Even then, they were faced with the additional challenge of finding a medical professional who was prepared to conclusively state that the cause of death was homicide as opposed to accidental.

Moreover, two U.K. investigators opined that the amount of resources allocated to an investigation into a suspicious child death was dependent on the ease with which cause of death could be established. If in a case this proved relatively straightforward, then they suggested that more officers would be allocated to the case so that it could be successfully concluded quickly (usually in around 2 weeks). Conversely, where cause of death was less certain or ambiguous, then the chances were that the investigation would progress much slower and would last longer, due to waiting for medical evidence. These investigators were critical that fewer resources were devoted to these cases, even though similar tasks needed to be undertaken and it was likely that the investigation itself would be more complex:

On a particular case, it took them at least nine months to a year to tell us whether the child had actually been killed or not, by which stage if you hadn’t been investigating it at the initial stage, the witnesses, anything you would normally do . . . CCTV, phone work . . . would have disappeared. (UK3)

Investigators in both countries reported that, in many respects, the investigative process was very similar, regardless of whether the victim was an adult or child, for example, relatives still need to be informed, statements still need to be gathered, and evidence still needs to be secured. However, interviewees in the United Kingdom continued to highlight significant differences where young infants were concerned. First, the involvement of the Family Court:

Obviously you are dealing with the family courts as well, which in itself is very, very frustrating, because they work on different levels of, they deal with balance of probabilities, whereas we deal with the Crown Court use reasonable doubt. So balance of probabilities, they can say oh it was him, well that just blows our case you know. It’s very frustrating when you are dealing with agencies that haven’t got the balance, the proof that we need, to go to criminal court and they can just make a decision and that can affect our investigation. From that point, it’s different with a child, because obviously then, you know, the family court is a huge player in this, as opposed to an adult court. (UK4)

U.K. investigators also highlighted that adult homicides were more likely to occur in a public setting and, therefore, in the presence of witnesses, where, by contrast, suspicious child deaths usually occurred in the privacy of the home, with only parents or caregivers present. Three investigators from the United Kingdom and one from Denmark described cases where neither parent was willing to admit responsibility, in which case, it was incredibly difficult to prove which one had caused the child’s death. It was also explained that in adult homicide investigations, friends, colleagues, and associates are available to be interviewed to corroborate information, as well as interrogating social media accounts to learn about the victim’s lifestyle and what is “normal.” However, the younger the child, the less likely they are to have social networks and so it is common for the case to become “exclusively a medical investigation” (UK3).

In cases where it was difficult to prove which parent was responsible, the investigators expressed a mixture of frustration and regret that they had been unable to secure a conviction on behalf of the child. Two of U.K. investigators directed their frustrations at the U.K. Crown Prosecution Service on occasion for their refusal to prosecute the case in the absence of more convincing evidence. In relation to this, one investigator reported that he had continued to investigate the case until more evidence became available, and another expressed concerns for the welfare of some of their colleagues who had been unable to “let the case go” (UK4).

Clearly one of them has shaken this child and the child has died, but we can’t prove which . . . it’s terrible knowing that there will be no justice for that little child. (UK2)

Knowing that you cannot take it to court and cannot get a conviction is something that you will have to live with. (UK4)

Four investigators from Denmark and two from the United Kingdom reported that one of the most difficult aspects of an investigation were conversations with the child’s parents and family, although there was some suggestion that “with experience, it does make it a bit easier to talk with these people” (Den2). For some, these difficulties stemmed from a heightened sense of injustice that is associated with the death of a child:

When a child dies it is a horrible act, it is something that should not happen. It makes a huge difference on how you handle the case. Particularly in child homicide cases, it is very crucial that during the investigation, and dealing with the family, that you tread very carefully and have a lot of empathy for the families . . . (Den 1)

Investigators commonly emphasized the importance of handling the case sensitively while demonstrating sympathy and compassion for the grieving family, but they were also very mindful that the parents and family members were common suspects in a case. This meant that it is common for detectives to experience mixed feelings toward the parents or family—“I felt sorry for her as she had lost her child but also knew that she wasn’t squeaky clean” (UK5).

There was a consensus that a fine line existed between showing an appropriate degree of empathy and becoming too emotionally involved, which has the potential to cloud an investigator’s judgment. However, one investigator reported that where a vulnerable person is concerned, such as a child, it can be more difficult to maintain a professional distance and remain objective (UK4).

I could sense that there was something odd about the mother . . . the nurses thought that she was so sweet . . . but both me and my colleague had the sense that something wasn’t right. It’s very important in these cases that you can see what other people are feeling but without being emotionally involved, otherwise there is the risk that you will rule out suspects too early. (Den5)

Although all investigator participants stated that they did not feel that cases involving the suspicious death of a child were necessarily more challenging than adult homicides, the heightened vulnerability of younger victims was reported to carry an additional emotional burden for investigators. An exception to the “not more complex investigations” rule found was when the investigation was into the suspicious death of a young infant, where both difficulty in establishing the cause of death and the common absence of witnesses and corroborating information often result in lengthy and complex investigations. In addition, the associated inability to achieve a prosecution was highlighted as a source of long-held anguish and regret by four out of five U.K. investigators.

Feeling Pressured to Conclude an Investigation

Expanding on the pressure to get a conviction, investigators were also asked to consider whether the pressure to conclude a case varied depending on whether the victim was an adult or child. When asked this question, all six Danish investigators and two U.K. investigators immediately recounted the sense of personal pressure to achieve a satisfactory conclusion to a case (as opposed to pressure exerted by senior police officials or external sources such as the media). In Denmark, it appeared that the pressure experienced arose more from a personal, or perhaps collective, sense of responsibility to achieve justice on behalf of the child:

All U.K. investigators reported a sense of pressure to achieve a conviction (although this might reflect one particular high-profile case being in court at the time of the interviews). Investigators reported that they were often anxious that they might have missed an important detail in the investigation or that the defense might be able to identify flaws in their evidence. There was some suggestion that these anxieties might have occurred partly because of being unable to spend as much time on an investigation that they would have liked to due to “workload issues” (e.g., “detectives are pulled from pillar to post,” UK2). For others, greater investigative experience appeared to provide a greater sense of reassurance that a case was likely to “stand up in court”—“Instinct develops with experience to spot when something has been missed in an investigation” (UK3).

It’s just all of a sudden, in the last couple of days, it’s really weighed on my mind that if he walks away from this, I will be devastated because I don’t know what more I could have done to put a compelling body of evidence before the jury. (UK3)

Of the eight investigators who referred to a sense of personal pressure, three from Denmark and one from the United Kingdom reported a greater sense of pressure in relation to child victims. This could at least partly be attributed to a greater sense of disbelief that anyone could harm a child and more difficult even beginning to comprehend the motives of the perpetrator (e.g., “In cases with a child homicide, something is seriously wrong . . . there is no normal reason to kill children,” Den3).

These investigators reported that they had felt more compelled to work even “harder” when investigating a child homicide (“We do all we can every time we have a homicide, but when the child is a victim, you’ve got something more so we work even harder,” Den3). One reported that she would “willingly burn herself out” (UK2) when investigating a child death and another admitted that detectives felt guilty when they left the office on time in case they missed an important development in the investigation (“We actually felt bad going home because you know something else might happen in the investigation,” Den 5).

When the other four investigators spoke about personal pressure, they said they feel an extremely high level of pressure with all homicide investigations, irrespective of the age of the victim. While some highlighted that the investigations could be just as time consuming, others believed all victims were equally deserving of the most thorough investigation possible:

Homicide is the worst criminal case we can have. One man kills another and that’s the worst thing that a man can do. For me, a homicide is a homicide, and it doesn’t really matter whether it’s a grown up, a child, or a hobo. (Den1)

All three remaining U.K. investigators, in response to the “pressure question,” named the media as opposed to a sense of personal pressure. Whereas some child deaths largely escaped media interest because they had happened “behind closed doors” (UK3), for others, the media pressure was said to be “magnified” when the victim was a child (UK3). This could be an “added burden” on investigations as the media would often obtain information from social media and present it as though it were evidence from official sources (UK3). One interviewee was adamant that he would not succumb to media pressure to solve the case as quickly as possible as “the most important thing was to handle the case ethically, conduct the investigation thoroughly and ensure that the evidence would be good enough to secure a conviction” (UK1).

Four investigators from Denmark and three from the United Kingdom reported that they felt that more experience helped them to deal with any cognitive and emotional pressure felt during a child homicide investigation, as experience facilitated better decision making and led ultimately to a more efficient investigation (“with age and experience, you are more able to remain calm, and that’s very important in making the right decisions,” Den4). Contrastingly, Roach et al. (2017) found that experience was not a significant factor in this type of investigation.

As can be seen here, investigators reported multiple sources of pressure, including a personal sense of responsibility to achieve justice on behalf of the victim and duty of obligation imposed by the media. For some, but not all investigators, the perceived sense of pressure was heightened in cases involving a child. Implications of this were that investigators would expend considerable energy into investigations, therefore experiencing physical and emotional fatigue.

The Emotional Consequences of Investigating Suspicious Child Deaths

In addition to questions surrounding investigative or procedural challenges, all investigators were invited to reflect on any emotional impact experienced as a consequence of their involvement in suspicious child death/homicide investigations. All 11 investigators agreed that investigations into suspicious child deaths were highly emotionally charged events (“the body is so small and vulnerable, like you can look at that little life, you’re robbed of all your future by some callous act,” UK1). However, when asked whether they were affected by their involvement in such investigations, eight of the interviewees demonstrated a great deal of emotional resilience (e.g., “Even though we are talking about this topic it does not influence me much,” Den1). One interviewee suggested that he had even become “hardened” to such investigations, so that now he was no longer “upset by them” (UK4). He did, however emphasize that this is only something that had developed with time and experience (UK4). Another interviewee reported a greater sense of distress in relation to the investigation of nonfatal violence toward children and child sexual abuse because the child would have to live with the consequences of their victimization:

Homicide is no problem for me, whether it’s a child or young man, or old woman, it’s no different.” In cases about sexual abuse, or violence towards children, it’s worse because they are hurt but they are still living, they are alive. (Den3)

One investigator became visibly upset when recalling details of investigations that he had been involved with and expressed a sense of surprise that he had felt emotional recollecting this case (“It’s surprising that I was emotionally involved when I re-told the story about the eighteen year old,” Den5). This suggests that it is not typical for him to feel this way, investigators are rarely invited to talk about how investigations make them feel, and are rarely given the space to engage with their feelings about cases and how they might affect them.

Despite the emotional resilience claimed by most of the investigators, when prompted to consider memorable cases, it was still clear from the way that they spoke and from their facial expressions, that some cases awakened deeper emotional reactions than others. Investigations into child homicides characterized by extreme levels of violence (e.g., “It was the great violence . . . it was quite a scene,” Den2) were cited as the most difficult to deal with emotionally. For these cases, attending the crime scene or autopsy, or viewing photographs of the body, was variously described as being very “somber,” “shocking,” and “unbelievable” moments in a case. For some, visiting the crime scene provided a disturbing reality of the events that had occurred and one investigator reported that she still had vivid recollections of the sights, smells, and sounds from the scene (UK2). Another interviewee, although preferring not to recount his experiences in detail, described experiencing “flashbacks” to the crime scene for some time afterward (UK1).

It also emerged that the emotional impact of an investigation could be intensified if the case was prolonged, as is common in suspicious infant deaths. One investigator described an investigation into the death of two children which lasted almost 2 years, where several investigators had devoted all their time to the case. He described how their lives had been utterly consumed by the investigation and how the depth of their involvement had intensified the emotional consequences experienced

You breathe it, you live it for every day of your life, every morning you’re back into it. (UK1)

I read their school books, looked at their drawings and saw their school reports. Even though the children were dead, I got to know them very well . . . I spent a lot of time with the family and even went to the funeral . . . and I think that all of these things, the collectiveness of that, is very impactful to an individual. (UK1)

Although it might seem appealing to anticipate which cases will have the greatest emotional impact, one interviewee warned against this as, in his or her experience, it can be difficult to foresee whether and which detectives will be affected by a case:

Certain things affect you and certain things don’t. Things that you wouldn’t expect to affect you do, and things that you would expect you affect you don’t. “It’s the ones that you least expect and that take the carpet away from your feet, that affect you the most.” (UK4)

Another investigator suggested that a greater sense of identification with a case might provoke a stronger emotional reaction (UK2). To explore this, investigators were asked whether they were parents and whether they thought that having children had any bearing on how they reacted to investigations. In Denmark, five of the investigators had grown up children, but they gave no indication that this made the investigations any easier or more difficult. They also denied that similarities between the age of the victim and the age of their own child at the time of the investigation had any bearing on how they reacted to the case. The remaining investigator was much younger and was expecting his first child within a matter of months, but said that now this did not have any bearing on how he felt about the cases but acknowledged that when the baby was born it might become more “real” and was likely to affect him more in the future.

Four U.K. investigators had children, and in stark contrast to the Danes, all of them reported that having children had affected how they responded to child homicide investigations. Again, the fact that the Danish investigators were all men and aged 10 to 15 years older on average than their U.K. counterparts is likely to have influence here. Especially as most of the U.K. investigators had children of school age, where all but one of the Danes had grandchildren. All the investigators, however, were adamant that although this had not affected the investigative process itself, they thought that the emotional impacts of investigating suspicious child deaths were higher for detectives who had children. The emotional effects of the case were considered likely to be more acute when the age of the victim coincided with the age of the detectives’ own children, because they were more likely to draw parallels between their lifestyles, interests, and achievements. UK4 explained that being a mother exemplified the vulnerability of children and made it more difficult to comprehend the actions of the perpetrator.

I think you realise how dependent a child is, you realise how vulnerable a child is . . . its at that point, when you see what somebody else can do to a child . . . you just can’t believe that somebody can be so, well, I can’t really think of the words to describe it . . . I just can’t even comprehend someone being that way inclined. (UK4)

Despite some initial outward expressions of resilience, further exploration revealed that some cases were deeply ingrained in all the investigators’ memories and were associated with hurtful emotions. Cases that were most detrimental to investigators’ well-being tended to be lengthy in duration, and involve severe levels of violence or a sense of personal relevance.

Coping With the Emotional Consequences of Investigations

Investigators were also asked how they dealt with their feelings both during investigations and after the investigation had ended.

Training and Support

Last, all investigators were asked about the availability of training and psychological support for investigators involved in suspicious child death/homicide cases. All the investigators emphasized that detectives involved in investigations into suspicious child deaths need a particularly wide set of skills including necessary investigative skills, the ability to communicate with a variety of external agencies, and the capacity to communicate with families who are bereaved and/or suspected of causing the death of their child. One interviewee commented that the more cases you are involved in, the more skillful you become and the easier the investigative duties become, but in contrast, the emotional side does not appear to become easier as “it’s still somebody’s life that has been lost” (UK4).

In Denmark, there is currently no guidance or training related specifically to the investigation of homicide or suspicious child deaths. When asked, U.K. investigators highlighted the more generic Murder Investigation Manual and some had attended a course on investigating suspicious child death. All but one had been in their role for a considerable length of time before either of these had become available to them. In both countries, all reported that they had mostly learnt through their experience of working on cases (e.g., “I mostly I have learnt by doing it,” Den6). One investigator spoke of the value of learning from more experienced colleagues, and stated that each of them had their own strengths from which he could learn different skills (Den5). However, concerns were expressed that nowadays there was not enough detectives or expertise within the department to support new recruits to learn on the job.

We’re not good enough to tell others what we do. As you see, we have no people in this department and my last homicide was in December and after two weeks, I was alone on the case. That’s not good enough, I need a colleague to talk with all the time, to get, so and we don’t have, haven’t enough people to tell what we know and what, we don’t have. (Den2)

Although one investigator said that “we could probably prepare ourselves to deal with these cases better if we had more training in that specific area” (Den1), the five remaining Danish investigators reported that it was not feasible to teach a detective how to conduct investigations—it was essential to learn on the job. Three of the Danish investigators reported that because each case presented its own unique challenges, it was difficult to provide a training course or guidance document that would be useful in every possible situation. Similarly in the United Kingdom, it was felt important to develop transferable skills that would be applicable to a range of cases rather than developing a specific set of procedures to be followed.

The trouble with lots of guidance is that it’s somebody else’s guidance, it’s not the panacea, its guidance and sometimes you have to be flexible around the guidance, do what works, because if something doesn’t work in the real world then we can’t hit everything with this gold model. (UK3)

Being and working as part of a team appeared important in terms of developing expertise but also provided an important informal support system. Interviewees in both countries were very appreciative of the support that they received from their peers, and said that this was made possible by a sense of camaraderie, loyalty, and shared experiences (“We’re all in the club,” UK1). One investigator said that this fostered trust and that detectives would be less likely to speak to someone who had not experienced similar emotional experiences, presumably generated by homicide investigation (UK4).

In both Denmark and the United Kingdom, it was felt that over the last 10 to 12 years, there had been a cultural shift in the police as there was more “acceptance that emotional problems are a natural reaction and not a sign of weakness” (UK4). In Denmark, investigators were aware of opportunities to schedule formal debriefs once a case had been closed. It was said that formal debriefs were more likely to be arranged automatically by seniors if there were a lot of people from different departments and agencies involved with a case. That is not to say that debriefs would not happen if the case was confined to a small team of investigators, but it was thought that it required someone to specifically request the debrief before it happened (“If anyone wants a debrief, there will be a debrief, but someone has to ask for it,” Den1). What was not clear to us was whether the interviewees felt that they would ever be likely to ask for a debrief session and, if so, under what circumstances?

All 11 investigators stated that they felt that one-to-one psychological support could be easily accessed in their force and that this was now actively encouraged by their line managers. However, as highlighted by interviewees “it still requires that someone comes forward and says ‘I need this help’” (Den1). One interviewee reported that detectives do not necessarily recognize that they need help and might not be willing to admit that they are struggling to cope. Indeed, sometimes it might require a more experienced colleague to draw their attention to problems that they are experiencing.

Identifying when you need to take time out or seek support comes with age, and you’re less afraid to say I can’t cope . . . As you get older you are more prepared to talk about things, whereas when you are younger it can be seen as a sign of weakness . . . I’m also better able to identify people who are struggling as I’ve been through it. (UK4)

With concerns about the erosion of team-based working taken aside, all the investigators saw being a member of a close team as an invaluable opportunity to learn from one another and a source of vital informal support. Given that there are indications that investigators might fail to recognize the adverse emotional consequences on involvement in difficult investigations, it is important that their colleagues who know them well are able to recognize the signs and encourage them to seek support.