An Exploration of the Meaning and Understanding That Mothers Give to Maintaining a Relationship With a Partner Who is Convicted of Sexual Offences Against Children.

Whilst remaining highly controversial in sex offender management, in some cases reparation is believed to be a positive process for families. However, this process is still accompanied by much scrutiny, and the potential stakes are devastatingly high. Due to the degree of controversy surrounding reparation it remains a relatively new concept and indeed a new practice within child protection agencies. The absence of research into practices and experiences of all those involved in reparation is apparent and is called for to help inform clinical practice (Gilligan & Bumby, 2005). The aim of the present study was to explore the meaning and understanding that mothers give to maintaining a relationship with a partner who is known to have committed sexual offences against children. Six participants were recruited from Social Services through a specialist child protection unit and were interviewed. The data was analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Five main themes emerged from the data; Making Sense of the Situation, Negotiating the Role of Mother, Managing Risk, The Reparation Journey and Experience of Agency Involvement. The findings suggest that the women are clear that they play a critical part in keeping their children safe and that they must stay in role as ‘protector’ indefinitely in order to move their family safely forward. These women do not understand their situations in a context of putting their desires and wishes first, in fact it seems that they understand it as quite the opposite. They appear to make sense of their situations and the route they are undertaking in a context of doing the best they can for their families, for their children and their partners and the dilemma of whether or not to maintain the relationship was not one they spent much time considering. The findings are discussed in relation to previous literature and research and the implications for practice and future research are considered