Dealing with the unthinkable. The cognitive and emotional effects of suspicious child deaths on police investigators

The findings of a two-stage research project to explore the cognitive and emotional effects of suspicious child death cases on police investigators, is presented. The results of an electronic survey with 100 UK police homicide investigators to identifies significant differences in the effects of suspicious child deaths experienced by police investigators, when compared with adult homicide investigations (e.g. difficulty sleeping, preoccupation with a case, and increased pressure to achieve a satisfactory conclusion to the investigation). Next the findings of 20 follow-up semi-structured interviews are presented, that focus on the personal accounts and experiences of 10 UK and 10 Denmark police investigators, to identify both individual and common coping and decision making strategies used by police investigators in cases of suspicious child death.