Risk and Protective Factors
Definition
Measurable individual, family, peer, school and community conditions that longitudinal research links to a raised or lowered likelihood of offending.
Related terms
- Developmental Prevention
- Prevention timed to specific developmental stages, such as infancy, early childhood or the transition to adolescence, on the premise that risk factors...
- Diversion
- Handling a child's case outside formal judicial proceedings, for example through caution, mediation or community-based measures, so that the criminal process itself...
- Primary Prevention
- Universal measures aimed at an entire population or community, delivered before any risk has been identified in a specific child.
- Secondary Prevention
- Targeted measures aimed at children already showing elevated risk factors or early problem behaviour, before formal offending begins.
- Tertiary Prevention
- Measures aimed at children who have already offended, intended to stop reoffending and support desistance.