Co-Creation to Increase Cross-Functional Collaboration in Police Investigations of Online Child Sexual Abuse: A Qualitative Study Protocol

Abstract

This qualitative study protocol outlines a co-creation project between researchers and the Swedish police to improve cross-functional collaboration in online child sexual abuse (CSA) investigations. Online CSA cases are complex and require extensive collaboration between prosecutors, IT forensic expertise, and investigators with expertise in child sexual offenses. Despite the recognized need for cross-functional teamwork, research evaluating methods for such collaboration in crime investigations, especially in online CSA, is scarce. This project, funded by the Swedish research agency FORTE (2023-00085), addresses this gap by employing the ‘double diamond’ co-creation framework (discovery, define, develop, deliver) to co-create, implement, and evaluate a team-based intervention within three online CSA units in northern Sweden. Data collection will involve semi-structured interviews (n ≈ 35), participant observations of workshops, workshop appraisals, document analysis, and analysis of organizational metrics. The project aims to: (1) identify challenges and potentials for cross-functional teamwork in online CSA investigations; (2) co-design a team-based intervention to address identified needs; and (3) evaluate the intervention’s impact on efficiency and organizational outcomes. By working collaboratively with police practitioners throughout the research process, this project aims to generate practical and sustainable solutions to enhance the effectiveness of online CSA investigations.

Online child sexual abuse (hereafter referred to as online CSA) includes digitally mediated sexual violence and exploitation of children. These offenses include crimes such as online solicitation and grooming, production, sharing or consumption of sexual abuse material, live streaming of sexual abuse, and nonconsensual sexting and sexual extortion where images are disseminated using methods such as blackmail (NCMEC, 2023). For police authorities, online CSA cases are particularly challenging to investigate. For example, a broad stream of research has shown that online CSA offenses are emotionally and mentally taxing for investigators who review abusive material, as they may involve large volumes of content depicting severe abuse of children that must be examined, all while adhering to investigation timelines (Lindholm et al., 2024; Martellozzo, 2015). Investigators who regularly are exposed to abuse material run a risk of experiencing secondary traumatic stress (Bourke & Craun, 2014; Hurrell et al., 2018) and moral injury (Doyle et al., 2023; Tapson et al., 2022).

Moreover, the complexity of online CSA cases varies significantly, ranging from less extensive offenses where adolescents exchange sexualized material to cases where perpetrators commit direct abuse against children or collect and disseminate substantial amounts of abuse material. Criminal activity can span multiple countries as web hosts, proxy servers, and cloud services that have global reach (Henry & Powell, 2018; Martellozzo, 2019). These crimes also regularly involve numerous children and offenders, and the modus of this crime type can rapidly evolve with technological advancements (Burruss et al., 2018). The Internet can offer anonymity for offenders and enable access to vulnerable children through channels such as social media, games, apps, the ‘dark web’, and through peer-to-peer networks (Ali et al., 2021).

With these characteristics, complex online CSA investigation necessitate in-depth collaboration among prosecutors, IT forensic expertise, and investigators with expertise in child sexual offenses, reviewing of material and child victim interviewing (Lindholm et al., 2024; Powell et al., 2014, 2015). As Martellozzo (2019) stated, technology offers new platforms for sexual offending, but technical development also opens for new methods of policing these crimes. To make use of this potential, the police need to work collaboratively and integrate knowledge about technical systems as well as criminogenic patterns and offender behaviors that are common within the field of sexual offences of children. Although investigators within online CSA benefit from cross-functional collaboration, surprisingly little research has evaluated methods for collaboration and cross-functional teaming in crime investigations (Broadhurst, 2019; Mitchell et al., 2011). As Holt et al. (2020) stated, there is a current absence of evaluation and assessment of investigative activities targeting online CSA crimes. This is partially due to difficulties for researchers to access police organizations and investigation units (Rantatalo et al., 2018). Furthermore, as Holt et al. (2020) commented, the dearth of research on how online CSA investigations can be organized has led to a situation in which it is ‘unclear from a research perspective how well law enforcement agencies can respond to child exploitation material’ (p. 2).

In our Swedish nationally funded project titled ‘Cross-Functional Collaboration in online CSA Investigations’ (FORTE 2023-00085) we are addressing this challenge as our research group collaborates with the Swedish police authority through co-creation methods to examine teamwork within online CSA investigative units. In this qualitative study protocol, we wish to outline our working method. Previous research has shown that online CSA investigations highly rely on knowledge diversity and collaboration. Furthermore, there is a current need to develop ways and methods to facilitate cross-functional teaming within online CSA investigations.

Aim

The project aims to explore how cross-functional collaborative work can be supported in online CSA investigations. To achieve this, the research group will work jointly in co-creation with the Swedish police to develop, implement, and evaluate the feasibility of a team intervention for online CSA investigation units in Sweden. The following questions will guide the research:

1. What are the specific challenges and opportunities of cross-functional teamwork in online CSA investigations?

2. How can a team-based intervention be designed to meet the current needs of collaboration?

3. Do co-created approaches to teamwork contribute to increased efficiency in online CSA investigations, and/or other distal organizational outcomes in online CSA investigations?

Co-creation through a Dynamic ‘Double Diamond’ Framework

To examine the potential of team work to support online CSA investigations, we will work with co-creation methods (Vargas et al., 2022) in collaboration with the Swedish police authority using a ‘double diamond’ framework. The Double Diamond framework was originally developed as a visual description of a co-creational design and innovation process. Since its development, it has been widely used as a template for various intervention initiatives (Kochanowska et al., 2022). The framework stresses the importance of a partnership with the end-users in all stages of the program, from planning to design and evaluation. The ambition of the co-creation is to promote ownership and engagement among the stakeholders, as well as to make sure that innovations and interventions are contextualized and target actual and prioritized needs of the end-users. The co-creation process as outlined by the framework consists of four steps:

1. The discovery phase: In this phase problems are explored, insights and user needs gathered, and ideas generated (divergent thinking). This can include gathering insights from research and theory (e.g., through literature searches) and different stakeholder views.

2. The define phase: In this phase problems are defined, prioritized and specified, providing a rationale for the focus of improvements (convergent thinking).

3. The develop phase: In this phase solutions to the problems are deliberated, explored, and decided upon, leading up to the creation of an overall programme theory of how to best solve problems (divergent thinking).

4. The deliver phase: In this phase, innovations and/or improvements are implemented and evaluated, the parts that do not work are rejected, and those in need of adaptation are redefined (convergent thinking). Thus, this phase uses an iterative process in which implementation outcomes are used to inform adaptations to the prototype.

Following this basic structure for co-creation, the research group and the stakeholders within the police will work jointly to develop, contextualize, perform, and evaluate a team-intervention for an online CSA crime investigation context. The use of data is integral throughout the work to guide how an intervention can be developed and contextualized while also being systematically evaluated (Banbury et al., 2021). Thus, by integrating diverse perspectives and expertise, the project aims to reach practical, applicable and sustainable solutions for increased collaboration. In the following, we go more into depth regarding the methods and specific design of the project. We first describe the sampling in our project and then describe the overall design using the phases from the double diamond framework.

Sampling

The project is conducted in collaboration with the northern police region in Sweden. This region is divided into four police districts, is largely rural, covers more than 55% of Sweden, and has about 877,000 inhabitants (Rantatalo et al., 2020). Within the northern police region, online CSA cases are investigated within a regional cybercrime department with various resources devoted to the investigation of online CSA crimes. Specifically, the department is divided into three online CSA units in three different cities within the region. In addition, some investigations are conducted at the police district level by non-specialist investigators (Lindholm et al., 2024). In the project, we will work with the three online CSA units which each is comprised by approximately 8-10 individuals (lead-investigators, online CSA investigators, administrators, IT-forensics, etc.) to develop, implement and evaluate an intervention to support cross-functional teamwork. The co-creation process with these units can be illustrated as follows (see Figure 1).

Figure 1.

Data Collection and Analysis in a Double Diamond Framework.

Discover

Discovery involves divergent thinking, and exploration of new knowledge. In the project, this phase aims to answer research question 1: what are the specific challenges and opportunities of cross-functional teamwork in online CSA investigations?

With the co-creation approach, the discovery phase entails joint work between the research group and police representatives in several steps. First, through interviews, participant observations, and a workshop where investigators reflect on challenges in their work, we will analyze and identify the broader organizational goals that the police aim to achieve by implementing team structures in online CSA investigations. This is achieved through empirical studies as well as dialogue that reflect the current need for changing the organization.

We will conduct individual semi-structured interviews (n approx. 35) during site visits at each of the three online CSA units. Interviews will be conducted with detectives and managers in the participating units. By using snowball sampling, other key roles to interview can also be identified (such as forensics and prosecutors). This round of interviews serves to examine key stakeholders’ perceptions about planning the intervention, readiness to change, level of commitment, and motives for participating.

Since our data collection presupposes site visits at the units, we will also use these visits to conduct participant observations to obtain an overview of how work is organized and how an intervention might contribute to change. Following Jeffrey and Troman (2004), our approach to participant observations can be called ‘selective intermittent’, which means that the researchers conduct time-compressed observations of selected relevant events in the organizational context. Specifically, we will conduct site visits at the three online CSA units and shadow one detective for 1–2 days at each unit. These observations will contribute to our understanding of how work is organized, and they will provide input on themes to follow up.

In addition to these methods, we will also conduct an initial workshop where police are invited to describe challenging aspects of their work, and we will conduct document analysis to get a contextual understanding of the units studied. We will analyse documents such as organizational plans, annual reports, policy documents, and strategic objectives related to online CSA investigations to ensure that the intervention aligns with the broader organizational framework. We will collect relevant documents through referrals from the police and documents will be analysed qualitatively with a focus on content. Through document analysis, we can identify distal organizational outcomes (what goals the police have regarding online CSA investigations), current organizational challenges, and the wider organizational context of the intervention implementation.

Define

Following exploration, the define phase involves convergent thinking and consolidation of ideas. Here, the previously identified distal outcomes are discussed and translated into proximal intervention outcomes, that is, desirable outcomes of implementing cross-functional teamwork on a more local or ‘granular’ level’ (von Thiele Schwarz et al., 2016). To do this, we will discuss our findings from interviews and observations with our steering committee and with the police online CSA units in a second workshop. In this workshop, investigators will be invited to reflect on our collected data and previously identified challenges in their work, aiming to identify potential solutions and explore how an intervention could be designed to meet current teamwork demands. Thus, this phase in our project corresponds to analysis of research question 2: How can a team-based intervention be designed to meet the current needs of collaboration?

This phase of the project focuses on interpreting our previously collected data while also identifying potential solutions for the intervention, along with suitable evaluation methods and implementation strategies. Hence, this work entails doing member checks to validate our interpretations of current challenges regarding teamwork, moving from identifying challenges towards potential solutions, and prioritizing different types of solutions in a workshop format as well as in dialogue with the steering committee of the project.

Develop

Following the discovery and definition phases, the double diamond workflow includes a second explorative iteration that is geared towards ‘developing’ a team-based organizational intervention. In the developing step, a context-specific intervention prototype is developed, explored, discussed, and evaluated for feasibility. This phase will be mainly analytic and will be based on findings from our data collection and workshops that were conducted in previous phases. We will also conduct complementing interviews if needed. This analytical work will entail a critical examination of specific challenges and opportunities for cross-functional teamwork in online CSA investigations and how an intervention should be outlined to suit these challenges and opportunities. We will focus on identifying and categorizing central ‘main concerns’ of detectives working with online CSA investigations, concerning readiness for change, level of commitment, and motives for participating in the project. As planning progresses, the analysis will be conducted jointly with our steering committee and focus on the practitioners’ sensemaking (Weick, 2012) of the emerging intervention prototype and how they assess the prototype’s feasibility in varying conditions. Thus, we wish to identify a logic that explicates the ‘theory’ about how the intervention prototype should operate in the online CSA context.

Deliver

Finally, in the delivery phase, the intervention is implemented and evaluated on target outcomes in practice (Oliver et al., 2024). This phase in the present project addresses research question 3: Does innovative approaches to teamwork contribute to increased efficiency in online CSA investigations, and/or other distal organizational outcomes in online CSA investigations?

The intervention will be implemented over approximately 6 months at each unit. Throughout this period, we will monitor the process through coordination meetings, where we will discuss progress, key implementation milestones, and any necessary adjustments to the intervention. Data collection and analysis in this step of the project will focus on evaluating whether the developed team-supporting intervention contribute to increased collaboration and if the intervention impact other distal organizational outcomes. Thus, the analysis focuses on outcomes of the intervention in the organizational context. In addition, the evaluation will also focus on how the intervention can be improved in future iterations of implementation. As we work with three separate online CSA units who are distributed across three cities, we have an opportunity to conduct three succeeding iterations of the team intervention and use all three groups as controls for each other.

As recommended by (Abildgaard et al., 2016), we will evaluate these intervention processes using a similar approach, employing mixed methods and collecting data before and after the intervention. The evaluation will focus on implementation outcomes such as perceived feasibility, utility, and appropriateness.

We will conduct interviews that focuses on experiences of working during and after the intervention, and, in addition, compare organizational metrics and survey responses. We will also evaluate the intervention by including health and job-related outcome variables from Human Resource systems in the analysis. This will allow us to pursue how outcomes such as burnout and turnover vary with the introduction of and/or occurrence of high and low levels of cross-functional teamwork at different time points and in different participating units. Interviews are key to getting a deepened understanding of how the intervention was received and perceived by members in the participating units. These interviews will therefore revolve around experiences of working in a team-based manner, team collaboration, team self-efficacy, and the general effectiveness of implemented team working methods. Similarly, we will also include questions on more generic (intermediate) intervention outcomes, such as organizational climate, leader and organizational support, and quality of job design, that will be expected to change due to the intervention. For our surveys, pre-existing validated scales such as Hellman’s et al. (2016), and Swedish ‘Assessment of Interprofessional Team Collaboration Scale’ (AITCS) will be used in the evaluation.

Intervention outcomes are thereby evaluated both for detecting intervention effectiveness and for establishing an evaluation model to use in a potential scale-up of the intervention at a later stage. In the dissemination of our results, we will work together with stakeholders to communicate the intervention within the police but also to the research community as an example of how this type of intervention can be co-created with a high degree of contextualization to solve real problems in organizations.

Ethics

The project has been submitted and approved by the Swedish Ethical Review Authority (Dnr 2024-01612-01). Although our research design does not involve collecting sensitive personal data in accordance with Swedish legislation, we recognize that personal integrity of research participants needs to be protected. In addition to formal approval, ethical considerations are also paramount to our project because it involves an interview and observational data in a work environment where sensitive information is handled regularly. Because our project involves studying values and beliefs held by individuals who participate in the project in their professional roles, we will be careful to minimize potential harm (psychological, emotional, and social) to the subjects of our research during all steps of the project. This includes adherence to ethical codes of conduct such as voluntary participation, anonymity, information regarding storing personal data, and assurance of informed consent.

Ethics is also important in handling research material after data collection; this includes how data is stored; for how long it is stored; and how it is disseminated, analysed, and reported. In these matters, we will follow practical guidelines such as the ‘good research practice’ guideline from the Swedish Research Council (2024), and common praxis for archiving within research institutions. A detailed data management plan will be set up and updated throughout the project in accordance with the policy for research data management at Umeå University in Sweden. Furthermore, empirical material will be stored in an encrypted format on external hard drives, and it will only be accessible to the project’s members.

Rigor

We utilize various methods to improve the trustworthiness of our research and conclusions. First, we conduct the project in close collaboration with unit managers and detectives working with online CSA investigations in the northern police region. To support joint work, we will collaborate with the established and outlined double diamond approach to co-creation research. By following this overarching framework, we will benefit and take advantage of established and proven practices of co-creation in research.

Another aspect of trustworthiness that is especially important in co-creation research concerns member-checking and involving research participants in analytical work (Kochanowska et al., 2022). As previously mentioned, we will establish a steering committee with police representatives and researchers. The steering committee will meet and work jointly to develop and contextualize the team intervention, so it meets the needs and contextual specifics of online CSA investigations. This group also plays an important role in the ‘delivery’ phase of the project as it enables the research group to work closely with unit managers to monitor how the implementation develops. Thus, through the steering committee, the police will be active in data collection and tracking intervention outcomes. A project with this approach is highly dependent on well-established contacts with representatives from the police and high commitment from both the research group and the police practitioners. From several previous research projects, we have built rapport with the Swedish Police Authority, and we have commenced a dialogue about the potential of this project.

Discussion

The Swedish Police Authority is the largest government agency in Sweden, and its crime investigation operations are critical from a societal perspective. The Swedish government, in collaboration with the police authority, has identified children as particularly vulnerable victims of crime, making them a priority in investigations and prosecutions (see Swedish national council for crime prevention, 2023). It is of significant societal relevance that online child sexual abuse is investigated adequately and efficiently, as these crimes are harmful both to individuals and society.

Currently, the investigation of online CSA crimes needs to be prioritized due to the high influx of cases (The Swedish Police authority, 2023). Unfortunately, available and current statistics indicate that the police authority faces significant challenges in meeting the goals associated with this work. For instance, data from the Prosecutor’s Office in Sweden shows that the average time to investigate serious crimes against children is increasing, and the proportion of investigations meeting the statutory minimum deadlines is currently at 58% (Rädda Barnen, 2024). This is serious, as it has major consequences for the victims, who are left without support and protection during long waiting periods. Delays in investigative work also increase the risk of continued criminal activity, more victims, and increased suffering. From this perspective, online CSA crimes represent a societal challenge driven by digitalization but can also be investigated and prosecuted using digital tools and effective work practices (Holt et al., 2020). By implementing team solutions that bring together different forms of expertise to investigate online CSA, and by disseminating current knowledge and broadening the competence base around online CSA crimes so that more investigators can work on these cases, our project can help address this societal challenge.