Exploring the Decision Making of Police Officers Investigating Cases of Child Abuse within the Family

Identifying the cognitive processes underlying investigative decision making in cases of child abuse is vital for reducing risk to safeguarding and justice through improved training. Despite this, very little research has been conducted into this specialised field. This study begins to address this gap by initially exploring the decision making of four British Senior Investigating Officers (SIOs) during challenging cases of child abuse using Cognitive Task Analysis methods. Whilst a range of cognitive, situational and organisational factors were identified as impacting on the decision making of the investigators, safeguarding was considered to be ‘paramount’ despite conflict with traditional investigative goals. This study provides some insight into the investigative decision making processes of specialist teams, but should be considered as a pilot study which will inform the design and provide a rationale for the proposal of a larger, more comprehensive study into SIO decision making in cases of child abuse