The Psychological Impact of Investigating Crime Scenes

Abstract

The goal of this study was to determine if there are stressful or psychological impacts from investigating crime scenes. This was accomplished by analyzing ninety-four anonymous surveys that had been distributed to various law enforcement agencies across the country. The surveys asked professional crime scene processors various questions about their careers, home life, and wellbeing. IBM SPSS Statistics was used to analyze questions about physical health, mental health, job position, duties, schedule, and crimes investigated. The surveys were thirty-seven questions each, with several having multiple answer options. The study found the majority of participants did not have any diagnosed disorders but did desire to either quit or retire due to impact on family life or from repeated exposure to tragic violence. Most agencies offer some type of post-crime counseling, but the bulk of participants did not utilize this resource. However, the vast majority of participants did think that counseling would be helpful and favored having the option in their career field.