"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.