Dirty Work? Policing Online Indecency in Digital Forensics

Published online on June 21, 2021

Abstract

More than 80 per cent of the work undertaken by digital forensics examiners deals with images of sexual abuse of children. While a growing body of literature analyses the emotional dimensions of coping with such material and the need to minimize exposure to it, less attention has been given to the day-to-day organizational arrangements in which such images are processed. Using ethnographic observations and interviews with practitioners, police officers and senior managers in four constabularies in England, this article examines the tension-ridden place for managing extensive contact with indecent images of children and argues that despite handling of transgressive material, digital forensic examiners distance themselves from imputations of being ‘dirty’ workers.