A phenomenological exploration of circles of support and accountability volunteers’ motivation in Ireland
Authors
Le Prince, Emeline
Issue Date
2022
Degree
Higher Diploma in Psychology
Publisher
Dublin Business School
Rights holder
Rights
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Abstract
In Ireland, like in most of the western world, re-integration of individuals with convictions for harmful sexual behaviour has been a challenging issue. Unlike most members of society, who would be against sexual offenders living in their community, some members have chosen to meet them regularly to provide them with support in a volunteer capacity. Indeed, they are volunteering as part of Circle of Support and Accountability (CoSA), a professionally-facilitated volunteering programme, being run in Ireland as a partnership between PACE, a non-for-profit organisation, and the Irish Probation Service. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 5 current volunteers in Ireland to explore their motivation to be involved with CoSA. The data was analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. These finding were found to be consistent with existing literature in the domain, except for the absence of faith-based motivation and the emergence of an additional theme related to the challenges specifically associated with the societal perceptions of sexual offending.