*4.3. Strengths and Limitations*

To our knowledge, this is the first study to empirically investigate what, if any, best practices exist for investigating and prosecuting CSAM. This may be one of the first studies to focus on law enforcement and prosecutors' perspectives of the challenges and facilitators to investigating and prosecuting CSAM. A strength of this study is the interdisciplinary nature of our research team consisting of individuals including a member with lived experience of exploitation, legal experts, social workers, and a nurse. Interviews and focus groups were conducted by this interdisciplinary research team. Further, the data analysis was done by a research team with different academic and career backgrounds in order to bring different lenses to the analysis.

This study has several limitations. First, given the time and resource limitations, the geographic area for recruitment was limited to a few cities in a similar geographic region, though recruitment did occur across multiple states. This may have impacted results as law enforcement and prosecutors may have different experiences in other areas of the country governed by different legislation and policies and sociopolitical contexts. Another limitation of this study was that in a small number of focus groups, there were people in leadership roles as well as frontline participants. This power differential may have influenced what some participants shared within focus groups. Although this is not ideal for focus groups, it allowed for more members of law enforcement teams to be able to participate in the research in a shorter time period. A final limitation noted in this study was that our research team did not include individuals with expertise in law enforcement and technology.

## **5. Conclusions**

The findings from this study demonstrate both challenges and facilitators to investigating and prosecuting CSAM. Many of the findings are interrelated and both challenges and facilitators can differentially impact how service providers work to combat CSAM. Participants in this study shared critical information, which can help to improve future practice and outcomes for victims and their families. This study demonstrates the complexities faced by service providers who investigate and prosecute CSAM-related offenses. This research is a first step in understanding the experiences of law enforcement and prosecutors in addressing CSAM and may be employed to launch a large-scale study to understand the perspectives of others in similar positions across the US.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, W.B. and G.D.; Formal analysis, O.C., K.Z.E., N.D., W.B. and G.D.; Funding acquisition, W.B. and G.D.; Investigation, K.Z.E., W.B. and G.D.; Methodology, W.B. and G.D.; Project administration, W.B. and G.D.; Resources, W.B. and G.D.; Supervision, W.B. and G.D.; Writing—original draft, O.C., K.Z.E. and N.D.; Writing—review & editing, O.C., K.Z.E., W.B. and G.D. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research was funded by World Learning Inc.: S-ECAGD-16-CA-1124.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
