As Pooky said your camera should have come with software that will allow you to upload the files from your camera to your computer and then convert them into an image format.
First a warning if you search for programs to do this. Avoid reasoft dot com and 3d2f dot com. Web of Trust (WOT) showed red for those two sites when I did a search. Looking at the WOT scorecard, both sites have several reports of installing virus and malware. Be careful about visiting these sites.
Okay! Just in case you did not know, or anyone reading this, RAW is not an image file. It holds information for image files, but it is not an image file. RAW is a data file not not viewable like a JPG, PMG, GIF or TIF. It gets worse.
Each manufacturer, Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Sony, etc. have their own way of putting this data into the RAW file. For example, the Photo shop plug-in that converts ORF (Olympus RAW Format) into an image will not convert your ARW. And as I understand it, Sony tends to change this format once in a while so that it differs from model to model. If I am wrong, please, someone correct me.
Getting them from your camera to your computer should be pretty simple. The software that came with your camera should let you transfer them from the camera to your computer. If you don't have the software, you should be able to download it from the Sony support site.
A card reader like a Lexar, or similar brand should allow you to move the files from your memory card to your computer in much the same way as you would move any files from a hard drive, floppy drive or CD drive. This is a small device that (usually) plugs into a USB port. It may, or may not need software (driver) to work, mine did not. Once plugged in you simply insert your memory card into it and your computer will act like it is an external drive. You can copy and move files to and from it with any program that can copy and move files. It's much easier than it sounds.
Once you have the ARW files on your computer, you need to convert the data to image files. The first step is to "import" them. To do this you need either the software from Sony, or an add-on or plug-in for your image editor. In most editors this is done with the "Import" feature, most likely under the "File" menu. In Photo Shop, I have the plug-in for Olympus format. Importing an ORF file is under File>Open>filename.orf. Or, I can simply double click any ORF file using windows explorer and it will open PS and the converter.
During your import, or conversion, you are usually given options to adjust your exposure, tint, contrast and other such adjustments. That is the beauty of RAW files. They are a digital negative, you just can't look at them like you can an image file. But they store the data for the image without any filtration or adjustments. You get exactly what the camera saw. Let me clarify. The file does save the settings. For example, I shot some pictures using the camera's B&W setting. The files were in color if I imported them without any settings applied. If I imported them with camera settings applied they were in B&W.
Once you have imported them, then you save them. Most editors let you pick which format you save in. Just use the default filename or give it one, select the format and there you are. You asked about JPG. I would suggest you save your images in TIF, PSD or PNG for editing. JPG is great for the final output if you are posting it to the web. But JPG gets rid of image data every time you save it. While editing, you can easily end up saving a file several times before you are finished. TIF, PSD and PNG do not get rid of any data. You can save as many times as you like without the image getting worse. Once you have the image the way you want it, then save it as JPG.
So the short version. Free software would most likely come from Sony. Keep in mind you get what you pay for, and this is free. You will never, let me rephrase that, at this time, you can not view any type of RAW files just like any other photo on your computer because they are not image files. If your camera can save your pictures as RAW + JPG, do this. Most of the time I can post the saved JPG without any editing. The saved JPG lets you view the image without having to convert it. And you still have the much higher quality ARW file to work with.
Hope this helps you.