Teaching Strengths
APrf Bryce Westlake
School of Economics
College of Business and Law
A prolific internationally recognized online child safety expert and grant-funded strategist with over 15 years of experience specialized in the distribution, detection, and prevention of child sexual abuse material (CSAM). I specialize in translating sensitive, complex digital forensic and high-risk behavioral analysis data into actionable policy and operational insights for government, criminal justice agencies, and private sector stakeholders. I have a proven track record of cross-functional collaborations, implementing behavioural solutions, resource management (e.g., budgetary oversight & grant management), strategic curriculum design and program scaling, and writing for scientific and non-scientific audiences. My expertise affords me the ability to bridge the gap between advanced statistical modeling and the rigorous requirements of policy implementation, ensuring all data-driven solutions are scientifically defensible and operationally viable.
In collaboration with an international team of academic researchers, technology companies, and non-profit agencies, Dr. Westlake's primary research focuses on the development of automated tools to detect, collect, analyze, and match media files disseminated online or seized during an investigation. Findings have been presented to the United Nations, technology companies, and government agencies, while the tools are currently being utilized within law enforcement investigations.
Dr. Westlake also leads a multi-phasic study examining health and safety within BDSM communities, focused on understanding the social, emotional, and mental enrichment practitioners receive from related activities.
| Date | Position | Institution name |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 - 2025 | Director | Silicon Valley Digital Forensics Laboratory |
| 2020 - 2025 | Associate Professor | San Jose State University |
| 2015 - 2020 | Assistant Professor | San Jose State University |
| Date | Institution name | Country | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 - 2015 | Simon Fraser University | Canada | Doctorate of Philosophy |
| 2009 - 2011 | Simon Fraser University | Canada | Masters of Arts |
| 2004 - 2007 | University of British Columbia | Canada | Bachelor of Arts |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2026 | Olson, I. R., & Westlake, B. (2026). Holes in kinky education: the role of pornography in learning about BDSM sexualities. SEX EDUCATION-SEXUALITY SOCIETY AND LEARNING, 26(2), 263-278. WoS2 |
| 2025 | Ratcliff, S. E., Westlake, B., & O'Neill, A. (2025). Only as a last resort: perceptions of police among gender, sexual and relationally diverse (GSRD) BDSM/kink participants. POLICING & SOCIETY, 35(6), 849-866. WoS2 |
| 2025 | Forer, R., & Westlake, B. (2025). Pain for pain: the benefits and challenges of BDSM participation for people with chronic pain - An exploratory study. PSYCHOLOGY & SEXUALITY, 16(4), 1210-1226. WoS1 |
| 2025 | Westlake, B., & Mahan, I. (2025). An International Survey of BDSM Practitioner Demographics: The Evolution of Purpose for, Participation in, and Engagement with, Kink Activities. JOURNAL OF SEX RESEARCH, 62(3), 341-359. WoS13 |
| 2025 | Westlake, B. G., Kusz, J., & Afana, E. (2025). A double-edged sword: the role of pornography in learning about BDSM. Sex Education, 25(1), 23-37. Scopus7 WoS8 |
| 2024 | Westlake, B. G., Seigfried-Spellar, K., Brewer, R., Napier, S., Logos, K., & Davidson, J. (2024). Innovations from the launch of the child sexual abuse reduction research network. Child Abuse and Neglect, 155, 106999. Scopus1 WoS1 |
| 2024 | Westlake, B., Brewer, R., Toole, K., Daly, T., Swearingen, T., Fletcher, S., . . . Logos, K. (2024). Benefits and risks of implementing cloud-based technology for child sexual abuse investigations in Australia. Trends and Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice, (699), 1-18. |
| 2024 | Westlake, B. G. (2024). BDSM Safety in Pornography: Its Perceived Accuracy and Impact on Practitioners’ Safe Word Practices. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 53(9), 3475-3484. WoS1 |
| 2023 | Westlake, B., & Guerra, E. (2023). Using file and folder naming and structuring to improve automated detection of child sexual abuse images on the Dark Web. Forensic Science International Digital Investigation, 47, 8 pages. Scopus5 WoS5 |
| 2023 | Brewer, R., Westlake, B., Swearingen, T., Patterson, S., Bright, D., Ross, A., . . . Michalski, D. (2023). Advancing child sexual abuse investigations using biometrics and social network analysis. Trends and Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice, 668(668), 1-16. Scopus5 WoS3 |
| 2023 | Logos, K., Brewer, R., Langos, C., & Westlake, B. (2023). Establishing a framework for the ethical and legal use of web scrapers by cybercrime and cybersecurity researchers: Learnings from a systematic review of Australian research. International Journal of Law and Information Technology, 31(3), 186-212. Scopus6 WoS3 |
| 2022 | Westlake, B., Brewer, R., Swearingen, T., Ross, A., Patterson, S., Michalski, D., . . . Afana, E. (2022). Developing automated methods to detect and match face and voice biometrics in child sexual abuse videos. Trends and Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice, 648(648), 1-15. Scopus11 WoS7 |
| 2021 | Guerra, E., & Westlake, B. G. (2021). Detecting child sexual abuse images: Traits of child sexual exploitation hosting and displaying websites. Child Abuse and Neglect, 122, 8 pages. Scopus23 WoS15 Europe PMC1 |
| 2018 | Westlake, B. G. (2018). Delineating Victims from perpetrators: Prosecuting self-produced child pornography in youth criminal justice systems. International Journal of Cyber Criminology, 12(1), 255-268. Scopus10 WoS4 |
| 2017 | Westlake, B., Bouchard, M., & Frank, R. (2017). Assessing the Validity of Automated Webcrawlers as Data Collection Tools to Investigate Online Child Sexual Exploitation. Sexual Abuse Journal of Research and Treatment, 29(7), 685-708. Scopus22 WoS15 Europe PMC2 |
| 2017 | Westlake, B. G., Bouchard, M., & Girodat, A. (2017). How Obvious Is It? The Content of Child Sexual Exploitation Websites. Deviant Behavior, 38(3), 282-293. Scopus14 WoS11 |
| 2016 | G. Westlake, B., & Bouchard, M. (2016). Criminal Careers in Cyberspace: Examining Website Failure within Child Exploitation Networks. Justice Quarterly, 33(7), 1154-1181. Scopus21 WoS15 |
| 2016 | Westlake, B. G., & Bouchard, M. (2016). Liking and hyperlinking: Community detection in online child sexual exploitation networks. Social Science Research, 59, 23-36. Scopus42 WoS34 Europe PMC3 |
| 2013 | Paulhus, D. L., Westlake, B. G., Calvez, S. S., & Harms, P. D. (2013). Self-presentation style in job interviews: The role of personality and culture. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 43(10), 2042-2059. Scopus116 WoS95 |
| 2011 | Westlake, B. G., Bouchard, M., & Frank, R. (2011). Finding the Key Players in Online Child Exploitation Networks. POLICY AND INTERNET, 3(2), 33 pages. WoS33 |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2021 | Brewer, R., Westlake, B., Hart, T., & Arauza, O. (2021). The Ethics of Web Crawling and Web Scraping in Criminological Research: Navigating Issues of Consent, Privacy and Other Potential Harms Associated with Automated Data Collection. In A. Lavorgna, & T. Holt (Eds.), Researching Cybercrimes: Methodologies, Ethics, and Critical Approaches (pp. 435-456). Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave MacMillan. DOI Scopus19 |
| 2020 | Westlake, B. G. (2020). The past, present, and future of online child sexual exploitation: Summarizing the evolution of production, distribution, and detection. In Palgrave Handbook of International Cybercrime and Cyberdeviance (pp. 1225-1253). Springer International Publishing. DOI Scopus23 |
| 2016 | Westlake, B. G., & Frank, R. (2016). Seeing the forest through the trees: Identifying key players in the online distribution of child sexual exploitation material. In T. Holt (Ed.), Cybercrime Through an Interdisciplinary Lens (pp. 189-209). Routledge. DOI Scopus7 |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2021 | Lin, H. Y., Moh, T. S., & Westlake, B. (2021). Gun Violence News Information Retrieval using BERT as Sequence Tagging Task. In Y. Chen, H. Ludwig, Y. Tu, U. Fayyad, X. Zhu, X. Hu, . . . C. Ordonez (Eds.), Proceedings 2021 IEEE International Conference on Big Data Big Data 2021 (pp. 2525-2531). ELECTR NETWORK: IEEE. DOI Scopus3 WoS1 |
| 2019 | Epstein, B., & Westlake, B. G. (2019). Determination of Vehicle Speed from Recorded Video Using Reverse Projection Photogrammetry and File Metadata. In Journal of Forensic Sciences Vol. 64 (pp. 1523-1529). MD, Baltimore: WILEY. DOI Scopus15 WoS7 Europe PMC2 |
| 2012 | Westlake, B., Bouchard, M., & Frank, R. (2012). Comparing methods for detecting child exploitation content online. In Proceedings 2012 European Intelligence and Security Informatics Conference Eisic 2012 (pp. 156-163). IEEE. DOI Scopus28 |
| 2011 | Joffres, K., Bouchard, M., Frank, R., & Westlake, B. (2011). Strategies to disrupt online child pornography networks. In Proceedings 2011 European Intelligence and Security Informatics Conference Eisic 2011 (pp. 163-170). IEEE. DOI Scopus25 |
| 2010 | Frank, R., Westlake, B., & Bouchard, M. (2010). The structure and content of online child exploitation networks. In Proceedings of the ACM SIGKDD Workshop on Intelligence and Security Informatics 2010 Isi Kdd 2010 (pp. 1-9). ACM. DOI Scopus29 |
Year |
Amount |
Funding Body |
Project |
| 2025 | $555,000 | Australian Research Council Linkage Project | Consolidating intelligence data to identify victims of child sexual abuse (LP240200944) |
| 2023 | $497,948 (USD) | National Science Foundation (United States) | SaTC: EDU: Training digital forensics examiners through hands-on education investigating live criminal investigations (NSF 22-517) |
| 2022 | $47,010 | Oracle | Research into AI cloud-based Algorithms to assist Policing Authorities in building legal cases (CPQ-2581842) |
| 2022 | $271,541 | Australian Institute of Criminology | Advancing child sexual abuse victim and perpetrator identification using biometrics (P21/519) |
| 2021 | $50,000 | Cyber Security Cooperative Research Centre | Examining the legal and ethical dimensions of using automated data collection technologies to combat cyber threats in Australia (C25-00210) |
| 2019 | $169,298 | Australian Institute of Criminology | Developing automated audio and facial recognition biometrics tools for detecting child exploitation material (P18/320) |
| 2012 | $92,400 (CDN) | Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Canada) | Monitoring the evolution of online child exploitation networks (Insight Grant) |
Undergraduate: Introduction to Cybercrime, Forensic Criminology/Psychology; Research Methods in Justice Studies
Graduate: Cyber Forensics; Applied Statistics; Applied Research Methods; Deviance & Social Control
Connect With Me
External Profiles
Available For Media Comment.