This note provides a summary of evidence of factors associated with serious violence and aims to give the reader an idea of associated risk and protective factors. This may be of particular interest to applicants for the Essex VVU Grants programme.
A Public Health approach to preventing violence
As evidence suggests, Essex VVU views youth violence through a public health approach by focusing on focusing on prevention through evidence-based strategies and interventions, addressing the individual root causes or needs of young people. Therefore, investing in the community and its services and providers has the potential to positively impact young people in the short and longer term.
Risk Factors and protective factors
While many young people may face a number of risk factors it is important to remember that everyone has strengths and is capable of being resilient: “All children and families have individual strengths that can be identified, built on, and employed” to prevent future justice system involvement.[1] In recent years, studies of justice system involvement have increasingly examined the impact of these strengths (protective factors) on young people’s ability to overcome challenges and thrive.
Building Protective Factors to mitigate the risks
In 2021, the Youth Justice Board and the Association of Youth Offending Team Managers defined prevention as ‘support and intervention with children (and their parents/carers) who may be displaying behaviours which may indicate underlying needs or vulnerability[2]. Protective factors are influences that make it less likely that individuals will develop adverse biological, psychological, or social factors.’[3]
Risk factors do not operate in isolation and no single factor is responsible for explaining why an individual may experience negative outcomes. “Violence results from a complex interplay of a variety of factors and requires nuanced, developmentally based responses tailored to the specific situation of each child.”[4]
Within prevention work, a focus needs to be maintained upon enhancing the wellbeing of children, promoting their social inclusion, building family resilience, and providing access to universal services and facilities. Providing the right opportunities and support at the right time is key, which are accessible and responsive.
Table 1 outlines risk and protective factors for a young person.
Table 1: Risk and Protective Factors
| Domain | Risk Factor | Protective Factors |
| Individual these are biological, psychological, or social factors that make it more likely of ‘self-destructive’ behaviours | • Early antisocial behaviour and emotional factors such as low behavioural inhibitions • Poor cognitive development • Hyperactivity | • Positive social skills incl. ability to make positive choices • Willingness to please adults • Club, team or religious affiliations • High self esteem, confidence and resilience • High IQ |
| Family having an unstable family structure including issues of debt, parental separation or bereavement, economic dependency, ‘failed’ education, drugs and alcohol addiction as contributors to family breakdown.[1] | • Exposure to repeated family violence, maltreatment or abuse • Divorce, Bereavement or parental abandonment • A high level of parent-child conflict • A low level of positive parental involvement • Parental psychopathology • Parental antisocial history • Large family size • Poverty • Teenage parenthood
| • Participation in shared activities between young person and family (including siblings and parents) • Providing the forum to discuss problems and issues with parents • Availability of economic and other resources to expose young people to multiple experiences • The presence of a positive adult (ally) in the family to mentor and be supportive |
| Peers being in environments where they have more contact with ‘risky’ groups | • Less exposure to positive social opportunities because of bullying, rejection and isolation • Spending time with peers who engage in ‘risky’ behaviour • Gang involvement
| • Positive and healthy friends to associate with • Engagement in healthy and safe activities with peers during leisure time (e.g., clubs, sports, other recreation) |
| Schools, neighbourhood and community issues with less of a sense of belonging, feelings of isolation, loss of family or friends due to violence, lack of access to support services, or stigma associated with help-seeking[2] | • Living in an impoverished neighbourhood • Social disorganisation in the community in which the young person lives • High crime neighbourhoods • Low commitment to school • Low educational aspirations • Poor academic performance • Enrolment in schools that are unsafe and fail to address the academic and social and emotional needs of children and youth • Poor motivation
| • Engaging in safe schools that address not only the academic needs of young person but also their social and emotional needs and learning • High levels of physical and mental health • A community and neighbourhood that promote and foster healthy activities for young people • Access to and participation in consistent mentoring • Ability to form strong connections with trusted adults and the community. |
[1] Smith, I. D. (2007). Being tough on the causes of crime: Tackling family breakdown to prevent youth crime. Social Justice Challenge, 1-15.
[2] Connect. (2018). Risk Factors, Protective Factors, & Warning Signs – The Connect Program. Retrieved from The Connect Program website: https://theconnectprogram.org/resources/risk-protective-factors/
- It’s important to note the following about risk factors: 1) Many young people experience risk factors and no single risk factor leads a young person to offending. 2) When young people are exposed to multiple risk factors across domains, the likelihood of them experiencing/becoming involved in risky behaviours or crime increases at an even greater rate.
Evidence based interventions
Young people may experience different levels of risks at different points in their lives. Different risk factors may also be more likely to influence young people at different points in their development. For example, peer risk factors typically occur later in a young person’s development than individual and family factors.[7]
Different interventions or activities are shown to be successful at relevant points for young people, for example, primary prevention is aimed at the general population and secondary prevention activities are usually more successful when some level of risk or vulnerability has been identified.
What the evidence tells us: Primary prevention
Primary prevention seeks to reduce the overall likelihood of ever becoming a victim or perpetrator of violence, by reducing risk factors for violence in the general population and creating conditions that make violence less likely to occur. Some evidence based approaches include:
Early childhood: Promoting environments that support healthy development in childhood is identified as having one of the strongest evidence bases in preventing future violence at a universal level.
Access to positive activities and trusted adults: These programmes focus on building strengths rather than addressing deficits, with a trusted adult, for example through a youth worker.
Strengthening young person’s social skills: Strengthening young people’s social skills is an important component of any comprehensive approach to preventing violence. The likelihood of violence increases when skills in the areas of communication, problem-solving, conflict resolution and management, empathy, impulse control, and emotional regulation and management are under-developed or ineffective.
Creating protective community environments in which young people develop is an important step towards achieving population-level reductions in youth violence. Violence is associated with a number of community-level risks, such as residential instability, and access or perceived access to drugs. Reducing exposure to such community-level risks can potentially lead to population level impacts on violence. Utilising community and voluntary sectors to enable outreach with residents to promote norms of non-violence, connect young people and families to community support in order to reduce risk and promote resilience factors build buffers against violence.
School and education: School-based programmes can address a range of issues. Social and emotional wellbeing and mental health affect all students and therefore positive universal school-based interventions are the most effective way to support students. There are a range of programmes in place across Essex, which Essex VVU support, including the Joint Education Team (ECFRS and Essex Police) and Risk Avert. In addition, schools across Essex have adopted trauma-informed practice, and the evidence for this as part of a broad school based approach is very positive, with research showing reductions in exclusions and truancy, alongside better communication and emotional management between students and adults.[1]
What the evidence tells us – Secondary Prevention
Secondary activity is implemented after risk factors (for violence) have been identified, therefore screening and early detection of risk factors is important. Many who engage in violence as teenagers and young adults have histories of adverse childhood experiences, aggression, and exposure to violence as a child.
Mentoring: Mentoring programmes, targeted at young people engaged in, or at risk of, criminal behaviour, issues with school engagement, violence or other antisocial behaviour. These programs aim to help the young person form a positive relationship with a positive role model, developing social skills, positive behaviours and aspirations and have a person to talk to about any challenges they face.
Access to positive activities and trusted adults: These programmes focus on building strengths rather than addressing deficits, with a trusted adult, for example through a youth worker. For some areas, at heightened risk of experiencing violence, and for some cohorts of young people (those at heightened risk of experiencing violence), this approach in local community settings through locally recognised and trusted providers can provide safe spaces and safe adults outside of the home where a young person can belong and feel comfortable.
School and education: Targeted programmes should be used sensitively to avoid stigmatisation or labelling effects; delivery in school rather than in criminal justice settings can be helpful to avoid these negative effects. Mentoring and targeted programmes in school can improve engagement in education, attendance and behaviour and in turn encouraging opportunities to progress successfully.
Therapeutic approaches: Therapeutic approaches, including those involving cognitive behavioural therapies, are evidenced as reducing violence amongst individuals who have been involved and / or experienced violent behaviour through supporting young people to regulate their behaviour and develop appropriate coping strategies.
Summary
This note provides an outline summary of the current evidence for risk and protective factors related to involvement as a victim or perpetrator of serious violence. The focus is on those young people who are in the general population or at lower risk and therefore it doesn’t include a summary of evidence for tertiary cohorts (those young people at high risk or already involved in offending behaviour). There are many sources of evidence for this, The Youth Endowment Fund is a good place to start if you’d like to access more information on what works in preventing serious violence Homepage | Youth Endowment Fund.
Footnotes:
[1] Sutton, E., Brown, J. L., Lowenstein, A. E., & Downer, J. T. (2021). Children’s academic and social-emotional competencies and the quality of classroom interactions in high-needs urban elementary schools. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 66, 101975. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2021.101975
[2] HM Inspectorate of Probation. (2023, October 27). Prevention. Retrieved from www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk website: https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprobation/research/the-evidence-base-youth-offending-services/specific-types-of-delivery/prevention/
[3] Connect. (2018). Risk Factors, Protective Factors, & Warning Signs – The Connect Program. Retrieved from The Connect Program website: https://theconnectprogram.org/resources/risk-protective-factors/
[4] Murray, J., & Farrington, D. P. (2010). Risk factors for conduct disorder and delinquency: Key findings from longitudinal studies. The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 55(10), 633-642.
[5] Smith, I. D. (2007). Being tough on the causes of crime: Tackling family breakdown to prevent youth crime. Social Justice Challenge, 1-15.
[6] Connect. (2018). Risk Factors, Protective Factors, & Warning Signs – The Connect Program. Retrieved from The Connect Program website: https://theconnectprogram.org/resources/risk-protective-factors/
[7] Collier Collective, L. L. C., Centre, J. L., & Initiative, Y. F. JUVENILE JUSTICE & DELINQUENCY PREVENTION REFORM (Rachel Marshall and Naomi Smoot eds., 2019).
