Grace Nock

Understand online child sexual exploitation and abuse: Using a mixed methods approach to inform theory and prevention development.

Grace Nock

PhD Student, Forensic Psychology
School of Psychology

grace.nock@vuw.ac.nz

Profile

Grace completed her Undergraduate Bachelor of Arts in Education and Psychology and her Masters of Forensic Psychology at Victoria University of Wellington. Her Master’s thesis, titled "Understanding the Expertise Required by Law Enforcement Investigating Cybercrime: An Exploration of Social Engineering Techniques," focused on covert online investigations by law enforcement, emphasizing the skills needed for effective policing in this area.

Building on her interest in researching online offending, Grace is in her final year of her PhD in Forensic Psychology, focusing on online child sexual exploitation and abuse (OCSEA). Her PhD research aims to enhance applied knowledge development, informing both theory development and prevention initiatives.

Grace’s PhD includes five studies:

1. Appraising and Exploring Theories for OCSEA: This study compiles and evaluates existing theories to identify gaps and suggest new approaches.

2. Lived Experiences Using IPA: Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), this study explores the lived experiences of individuals who have offended online, providing deep insights into their perceptions and behaviours.

3. Preliminary Behaviours and Characteristics Analysis: Investigating possible preliminary behaviours that may premeditate OCSEA offences by examining the characteristics of individuals who self-report a proclivity to engage in OCSEA or "grey/borderline" behaviours online, and comparing them to a non-offending matched group.

4. Hierarchical Cluster Analysis: This study uses Hierarchical Cluster Analysis to explore subtypes or typologies of characteristics in those engaging in problematic online behaviours, aiming to identify distinct pathways or groups.

5. Motivations and Help-Seeking Using Thematic Analysis: The final study uses Thematic Analysis to provide insights into the motivations behind problematic behaviour and potential opportunities and barriers to help-seeking.

Grace has worked in research roles at the Evidence-Based Policing Centre NZ Police and on the Australian Institute of Police Management Map the Systems program in conjunction with the University of Oxford. She presented her first paper, "A Critical Review of the Theoretical Explanations for Online Child Sexual Offending: Towards a Deeper Approach to Theory Generation," at the IATSO Conference 2023.

Qualifications

Master of Science in Forensic Psychology, First Class Honours
Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Education

Research Interests

Online child sexual exploitation and abuse, theory development, rehabilitation, prevention, qualitative research methods, quantitative research methods