Away from delinquency and crime: Resilience and protective factors

Abstract

Delinquent and criminal behaviors are often the result of adverse conditions in the family and the neighborhood, or of affiliations with delinquent peers. However, case studies as well as large surveys have shown that even in adverse conditions, many children and adolescents do not engage in delinquency; they are “resilient.†In the explanation of criminal and antisocial behaviors, resilient individuals are those who have succeeded in overcoming at-risk circumstances. Resilience is also regarded as the process through which a person adjusts to at-risk situations in a successful manner. Promotive and protective factors stem from the community, family, school, peers, and individuals, and the configurations of these factors are important. In addition, protective factors are not universal. Risk factors and consequently, protective and resilience processes, may be different for children, adolescents, and adults, as well as for males and females. Finally, it is useful to distinguish primary resilience (i.e., as a preventive force in the onset of delinquency) from secondary resilience, which refers to a return to a crime-free life after a period of serious offending activity.