“Your world, everything just implodes, it really is a life-changing experience”: how do relatives of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) offenders navigate life following discovery of the offence?

There is a gap in understanding how family members of sexual offenders, and specific to the present study, families of those who download CSAM, navigate their life experiences after the point of discovery of the offence. Their psychological experiences are a direct result of their association with a family member’s sexual crime and yet, they themselves are innocent. A qualitative approach with fifteen female partners, ex-partners and mothers of CSAM offenders was used to examine how they experienced life following the discovery of the crime. Using reflexive thematic analysis, two themes were interpreted: (1) Navigation through Secondary Stigma Experiences and (2) Fragile Future. These findings provide practical suggestions for increasing support for non-offending families, which would enhance their ability to provide support to desisting CSAM offenders, and advance the literature to better understand complex trauma for secondary victims of sexual crime. PRACTICE IMPACT STATEMENT Family members of CSAM offenders play an important role in both safeguarding children and desistance processes. Their efforts to cope with secondary stigma experiences need to be acknowledged with access to appropriate support options made available. Our findings contribute important insights into what assistance optimises family members’ ability to deal with their circumstances as they struggle to cope with powerful stigma experiences, thus enhancing their ability to protect children and support offending relatives