A New Identity: Enhancing Life Skills and Work-Readiness for Those With a Sexual Offending History

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to examine the experiences of individuals, with a sexual offending history, who have engaged with a community-based life skills and work-readiness programme. With a view to understand the impact of such programmes on their rehabilitation and to inform a growing body of research around the approaches needed for promoting rehabilitation within this group. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with four participants about their experiences of accessing a community-based charity and three themes were identified using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis: “a place to belong without fear or judgement;” “creating an identity away from offending;” and “space and time to realise own potential.” These findings were discussed in relation to the Good Lives Model; previously identified protective factors for people with a history of sexual offending; and desistance research. The research offers a number of recommendations for practice which can be used by organisations to help them develop an inclusive and meaningful approach to supporting individuals with a history of sexual offending.

Keywords

• sex offenders
• good lives model
• desistance
• life skills
• community
• interpretive phenomenological analysis