"A shoulder to lean on in hard times": understanding the role of friendships in the lives of individuals convicted of sexual offences

Winder, B ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9118-679X and Lamont, J, 2025. "A shoulder to lean on in hard times": understanding the role of friendships in the lives of individuals convicted of sexual offences. Journal of Sexual Aggression. ISSN 1355-2600

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Abstract

The notion of instrumental peer support has been promulgated as a productive component in creating narratives of change amongst individuals who have engaged in sexual-offending behaviour. It has also been proposed that sustained emotional support from a stable network is a protective factor against sexual recidivism. This paper presents a qualitative analysis of the reflections and experiences of individuals (N = 7) who have served custodial sentences for sexual offences regarding the role of friendship in their lives, both before and after conviction, and what impact friendships have had in helping or hindering their transition into the community. Data were collected through one-to-one semi-structured interviews and analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Two superordinate themes were identified from the data. The first theme, true vs fair-weather friends, highlighted that many friendships were lost, a few were made stronger, but all friendships changed. The friendships that remained became an important place of safety for participants. The second theme, the cycle of help, emphasised the importance of having friends at a time of need, but also of the importance of being able to offer help to others, either in a formal scheme such as a Listener, or informally. Implications of the findings are unpacked and the authors make a plea for assisted reintegration through, for example, the provision of peer-support schemes and community-based reintegration services.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Journal of Sexual Aggression
Creators:	Winder, B. and Lamont, J.
Publisher:	Routledge
Date:	21 April 2025
ISSN:	1355-2600
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1080/13552600.2025.2487486 DOI 2419117 Other
Rights:	This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Sexual Aggression on 21 Apr 2025, available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/13552600.2025.2487486
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	Jonathan Gallacher
Date Added:	24 Jun 2025 14:50
Last Modified:	24 Jun 2025 14:50
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/53792

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