Date

10-16-2024

Department

Helms School of Government

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy in Criminal Justice (PhD)

Chair

Carl Miedich

Keywords

ICAC, Secondary Traumatic Stress, Resiliency, Resiliency Body Armor, Psychological Body Armor, Spiritual Body Armor, Coping, Wellness

Disciplines

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Abstract

Global online child sex abuse and exploitation is rising due to the immense accessibility of the internet, and it takes specially trained and devoted investigators to combat the problem. However, combating these heinous crimes can create traumatic events for investigators, resulting in secondary traumatic stress. This quantitative correlative study examined the psychological and spiritual coping strategies to develop a resiliency body armor concerning Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force personnel (ICAC-TF) working on child sexual exploitation investigations. The theoretical framework combined the concepts of Resiliency Theory, psychology body armor, and spiritual body armor to create resiliency body armor. The study included research questions that addressed the potential statistical relationships between burnout and length of time with the ICAC-TF, mental health coping methods, resiliency body armor related to secondary traumatic stress, and the relationship between resilience and spiritual body armor when living in a politically liberal state vs. a conservative state within the Bible Belt. The data showed that many ICAC-TF personnel use prayer, religion, exercise, and support systems to develop resiliency body armor to reduce and combat secondary traumatic stress. There were significant positive relationships between mental health coping strategies and overall resiliency body armor among ICAC-TF personnel working on child sexual exploitation investigations and between religiosity or spirituality and resiliency among ICAC-TF personnel working on child sexual exploitation investigations.

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