Examining the stress, satisfaction, and experiences of computer crime examiners

Abstract

While the stress of policing has been well documented for more traditional law enforcement duties, stress and job satisfaction among cybercrime investigators remains limited. This study examined the stress and job satisfaction from a sample of law enforcement agents who completed computer training from the National White Collar Crime Center and who had experience with digital evidence handling. The results show that role conflict was the most salient factor in predicting both stress and satisfaction. Experience with digital evidence handling increased job stress, but was not predictive of job satisfaction. The implications of the study are discussed.

Keywords:

• computer crime
• policing
• stress
• job satisfaction
• digital evidence handling

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to especially thank John Kane and April Wall from the National White Collar Crime Center for their assistance and support for this project. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2009 annual conference of the American Society of Criminology.

Notes

1. Sixty-eight cases were removed due to missing values, mostly from demographic variables.