Professionals’ perspectives on viewing child sexual abuse images to improve response to victims

The complexity of the phenomenon of child sexual abuse images online(CSAIO) benefits from cross-disciplinary collaboration across law enforcement, child protection, and children’s mental health. Through focus groups with professionals working in these fields, this article focuses on when and whether professionals who work with child sexual abuse cases should be exposed to viewing CSAIO and if so under what circumstances doing so would benefit investigations and support services for victims. In a broader sense, this article is about professional experience, decision making, training, and collaboration around a particularly difficult professional experience, namely exposure to viewing CSAIO.