Ms Lyric Buzza1
1Griffith University, , Australia
Biography:
Lyric is a final year PhD candidate at Griffith University. Completing her Bachelors and Honours at UniSC, she tutors and provides research assistance across both universities. Lyric is strongly affiliated with Stop It Now!, an anonymous helpline designed to prevent and disrupt child sexual abuse by providing confidential therapeutic support to people concerns about their (or others') sexual thoughts or behaviours towards children. Lyric's Honours project consisted of an evaluation of the program since its inception across all jurisdictions in which it operates. Lyric has industry experience in cybercrime prevention and has worked with victims impacted by many scams.
Stop It Now! Australia is a secondary prevention initiative designed to prevent and interrupt child sexual abuse by providing anonymous and confidential therapeutic support to people concerned about their (or others’) sexual thoughts about or behaviours towards children. This study thematically analysed clinical data and case notes collected during and immediately after contacts made to the helpline during its first two years of service. We use a Narrative Criminology framework to examine the nature and extent of Techniques of Neutralisation (Sykes & Matza, 1957) as they appear in the contemplation and pre-contemplation phases of one’s engagement in a sexual offence. A known theoretical limitation of Techniques of Neutralisation is the post-hoc nature in which the rationalisations are typically extracted from offending narratives. This study provides a significant temporal advantage by interrogating the narratives that develop much earlier in one’s offending trajectory. Thematic analysis indicated that denial of injury, victim, and responsibility were the most prevalent neutralisation techniques, and that they were offered, revised, and expanded upon with each client’s successive call to the service. Our results stand to make a substantial contribution to the refinement of mechanisms of secondary prevention of child sexual abuse.