Protective Factors for Youth Desistance

Identifying the key protective factors that promote desistance among young offenders and distinguishing the “active ingredients” of social, cultural, and legal contexts that could encourage desistance from crime in the lesser-studied context of Argentina (Farrington DP. Euro J Criminol 12(4):387. https://doi.org/10.1177/1477370815584262 , 2015), we will recommend the implementation of prevention methods designed to apply interventions aimed to promote desistance. Previous research has shown that protective factors are important in understanding desistance from offending because they contribute to a decreased likelihood of criminal behaviour by moderating the relationship between risk factors and criminal behaviour. Although some researchers postulated that incorporating the study of protective factors may improve recidivism prediction, there is little research evidence for this hypothesis. This chapter provides a valuable scientific contribution by supplying a review of previous research on protective factors for recidivism, which is rather scarce up to now in Argentina and internationally, particularly because protective variables are infrequently studied. Additionally, this chapter provides original evidence by examining the presence of interactive protective factors, specifically socioemotional competences, that promote desistance in young offenders in Argentina and reduce the probability of recidivism among young offenders, after controlling risk factors. These findings provide innovative knowledge regarding juvenile recidivism at the national and international level, because previous international research has focused on the factors for delinquency whereas studies on interactive protective factors is rather scarce.