Problems in protective factor research and practice

Publication date: Available online 13 December 2016
Source:Aggression and Violent Behavior
Author(s): Clare-Ann Fortune, Tony Ward
The concept of protective factors and allied constructs such as strengths or resilience has been the focus of increased research and practice attention within the criminal justice domain over the last ten years or so. A major reason for this interest is that assisting individuals to desist from further offending means helping them to live their lives in fulfilling and prosocial social ways. While this is a laudable aim several research problems are now apparent in the literature that threatens to undermine this goal. In this paper we focus on four of these problems and thereby set the scene for the remaining papers of this special issue. The four problems are definitional ambiguity, practitioner uncertainty, explanatory confusion, and the dual nature of protective factors.



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