An emerging field? Interventions in the UK targeted at individuals perceived to be at risk of causing sexual harm
Publication Date
December 14, 2023
Creator
Abstract
This study explores the field of interventions in the UK for people perceived to be at risk of causing sexual harm. It comes at a time when research is increasingly addressing the support needs of individuals with deviant sexual interests, particularly those who have not offended, and interventions are emerging to fill the gaps in support that exist. However, little is known about how this area of intervention is emerging in the way that it is, nor what this means for policy change. This thesis has addressed this gap through conceptualising this space as a ‘field’ (Bourdieu, 1985, 1996) and adopting a practice orientation to Interpretive Policy Analysis (IPA). First, drawing on findings from a desk-based study, it maps the field of interventions in the UK, and explores how institutional actors present themselves in line with the field logic. It then presents the findings from a grounded theory analysis of semi-structured interviews with 30 professionals with an interest in this area.
Two key findings help to make sense of why the field is taking its particular shape: first, there is nothing inherent that unites members of the group jointly targeted by interventions in this space. Rather, those seeking to intervene with these individuals reject the stigmatising label, ‘paedophile’, but recognise that those subject to it are subject to harm as a result of this labelling, and seek to work with them on this basis. Second, the field illusio – its ‘rules’ – holds that members of this ‘target group’ are deserving of support in their own right. At the same time, in order to justify adherence to this rule when speaking to those who do not accept it, field members must emphasise their interest in child protection, even if they do not believe that the people they work with present a risk to children. As a result, the field exists, in Bourdieu’s terms, in a state of heteronomy, where those who operate within its bounds are required to pursue the priorities of others, who are not invested in its stakes.
These findings, and the exploration of the methodology deployed in arriving at them, represent several original contributions. First, the synthesis of field theory and IPA is original, addresses critiques of both traditions, and has been shown in this study to have a meaningful empirical application. Second, by illuminating an emerging field that has not been subject to academic study, this thesis has made sense of the issues faced by those who engage in practice in the field. Third, this thesis has identified a shared understanding within this field, that those who are perceived to be at risk of sexually harming have nothing inherent that unites them, but are all subject to the stigmatising label ‘paedophile’, and deserving of support on this basis. Fourth, these findings contribute to the literature on field emergence, showing how a field can emerge in a state of heteronomy and through the rejection of a unifying label. Finally, by exploring this issue from an IPA perspective, this study has demonstrated how, in an area of intervention where there exists very little written government policy, change may happen genuinely from the bottom-up.
Item Type
ethesis
Thesis Type
PhD
Supervisors
Subjects (LC)
Associated Schools / Departments
School of Sociology and Social Policy
eprints ID
74055
UoN Repository URI
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Z. Robinson - An emerging field (revised).pdf
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Full-text
Description
Examined. Revised thesis incorporating changes requested by the examiners
Size
2.31 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
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