One emergent sub-theme to arise for all participants was the importance and significance of the connection between working with both victims and sex offenders, as they believed it provided a true representation and an overall interconnecting picture, “you get the balance, you get the full sort of picture or you get the full experience or impact from both parties so you don’t become too skewed in a way”.
The work with victims enabled the participants to witness the trauma and devastating impacts of the abhorrent crimes, which helped to provide a deeper understanding into the victims’ experiences, as Participant 1 stated, “The work with victims is really helpful, because you can see, if they are bewildered, …show more content…
The work had even had an impact on her husband as he would never have a child on his own in the car. Although Participant 2 did not have children, he had become more hyper vigilant and aware with his nephews and nieces particularly around the use of the internet, not only for what they could access, but who could access them and his questions to them would be more forensic now, whilst Participant 3 described how the work had made her “more aware of the risks for …show more content…
Participant 3 stated, “to think that, you know, children aren’t getting hurt because I am sitting in a room with this person, that’s priceless”. There was also a fundamental belief they acted as barriers between sex offenders and society, because whilst they were working with sex offenders, they were protecting society from further harm, as one participant stated, “whilst offenders are engaged with us and whilst they are looking at us, they are not looking at children for whatever length of time that is”. Also, the connection between working with victims and sex offenders emerged again, because by being able to see the impact on victims provided motivation for doing the work, which was confirmed by Participant 1, “I see the harm, I see the impact, I can see the incredible pain and I would tolerate a lot to avoid that happening to someone