While appreciation levels were high last week during National Forensic Science week, forensic examiners report it is not always like that, according to one of the first studies to address workplace stress from various forensic science fields.
The study, published in Journal of Forensic Science, surveyed 150 practicing forensic examiners from one major crime laboratory about their experiences with workplace stress and explicit and implicant feedback they receive. While previous studies have focused on unique stressors for examiners exposed to internal crimes against children or forensic odontologists identified mass casualties, there has been a lack of research addressing stress across core forensic science fields.
The study from Mohammed Almazrouei and colleagues examines stress and feedback across forensic biologists, forensic chemists and latent print examiners. Overall, 36% of examiners “strongly” felt they were often stressed at work, with 17% reporting feeling stress relatively infrequently. That leaves 47% feeling moderately stressed, which can actually be a positive step. Previous literature reports moderate stress can improve performance and push individuals to meet deadlines and keep motivated.
To evaluate the examiners, the researchers used a seven-point scale: scores 1-2 represented low feelings of stress, scores 3-5 as medium and scores 6-7 as high.
Across the three forensic groups, those that reported feeling high levels of stress attributed it more to workplace managers and supervisors (25%) than backlog pressure (20%) or personal life (11%). Breaking the results down to subgroups, forensic biologists (34%) reported stress from backlog pressure at a much higher rate than latent print examiners (18%) or chemists (9%).
The findings also reveal that mid- and late career examiners—those with more than 5 years of experience—felt increased stress originating from management and/or supervision and backlogs when compared with early career examiners.
The second part of the survey examined workplace feedback. About half (49%) of forensic examiners reported low scores for feeling that management, supervisors, police investigators, and/or legal advocates appreciated it more when they were helping to solve cases.
Here again, forensic biologists stood out from the pack— more forensic biologists (41%) reported receiving high levels of explicit feedback from key stakeholders compared with latent print examiners (21%) and forensic chemists (20%).
About 14% of forensic examiners “strongly felt” that stakeholders in the forensic services, investigative, and legal domains appreciated it more when they reported conclusions of high certainty.
“To be clear, the findings do not demonstrate that the examiners are in fact being pressured by the stakeholders to reach expected conclusions. Rather, the data illustrate what the examiners perceive and feel as implicit pressure. It is the perception and feeling of stress that makes a situation stressful rather than there being an actual stress factor,” the study authors explain.
Lastly, the study shows a higher level of implicit feedback was felt by late-career forensic examiners compared with early career specialists.
Overall, the findings of the study reveal many forensic examiners feel they operate under pressure, with the level of pressure varying by field and experience. Additionally, the results indicate lab managers and/or supervisors are one of the stress factors. Going forward, individuals in these roles can play a key part in optimizing the wellbeing of examiners. Since high levels of stress can impact performance in a variety of ways, the study authors emphasize the need for further research.
“Future research needs to experimentally examine the impact of stress on the decision-making performance in the forensic science context. Such experimental research is important given the critical nature of forensic science decisions within the criminal justice system,” concludes the study.
Correction: The headline of a previous version of this article stated that managers were the cause of forensic examiners' stress. We regret that that is misleading as managers can be just one factor that causes stress. The identified study points to a number of factors, each contributing to overall stress levels examiners perceive.