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Risk and Protective Factors for Juvenile Delinquency:

moving toward an understanding of "at-risk" in the context of GCC Funding

As part of the planning process, the Juvenile Justice Planning Committee resolved to place some context around the term "at-risk child" when programs or agencies apply for future GCC funding. From a series of discussions and additional research, the committee adopted a general but important set of ideas that will be useful toward improving the frame of reference when programs use the term "at-risk" to describe children, families or communities. The Juvenile Justice Planning Committee agreed to include language from research that identifies risk/protective factors known to correlate both with resiliency as well as behavioral problems in children (Wasserman, G., Keenan, K., Tremblay, R., Coie, J., Herrenkohl, T. Loeber, R., and Petechuk, D., 2003).

To these ends, the Committee agreed to ask future applicant programs or agencies who seek to serve "at-risk" children and youth to define "at-risk for becoming delinquent" using language that has become accepted in the literature in these areas. When proposing a program or service, applicants must include a definition of "at-risk" using the language in this theoretical approach.

For example, an agency seeking to provide afterschool services for "at-risk" youth should discuss, in their application, the specific risk and/or protective factors observed in their projected population to be served (e.g., what risk factors or protective factors have been seen in these youth to qualify them as "at-risk"?); and, the agency or program should link their proposed services specifically to those risk/protective factors targeted by their services (e.g., what services will be used to reduce observed risk factors in children, or increase protective factors for children?). By linking risk/protective factors to the program’s proposed services, measurable outcomes are more likely to be relevant.

REFERENCE

Wasserman, G., Keenan, K., Tremblay, R., Coie, J., Herrenkohl, T., Loeber, R., & Petechuk, D., (2003). Risk and Protective Factors of Child Delinquency. Bulletin. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.