Risk And Protective Factors In Children Essay

Understanding the risk and protective factors of child delinquency is imperative in order to create and implement treatment and intervention programs. Because children’s behavior develops during the first five years, it is important to know what risk and protective factors could increase the likelihood of a child becoming a child offender (Wasserman et al., 2003). Moreover, overcoming the risk factors would help prevent the child offender from becoming a juvenile, and later, adult offender. As Wasserman et al (2003) stated, “risk factors for child delinquency operate in several domains: the individual child, the child’s family, the child’s peer group, the child’s school, the child’s neighborhood, and the media” (pg.1). As one can see, children are exposed to risk in partially every aspect of their lives. As a parent, it’s important to understand protective factors in order to offset some of the exposure to certain risk. Individual risk involves an individual’s genetic, emotional, cognitive, physical, and social characteristics (Wasserman et al., 2003). Considering that most of these characteristics

Emotional and cognitive development are related with a child’s ability to control behavior in social situations (Wasserman et al., 2003). Poor cognitive development can impede academic achievement, which in turn affects behavior and puts a child even more at risk of becoming a delinquent. Hyperactivity, in which a child is restless and fidgety, makes it more likely that a child would later be involved in delinquent behavior; however, hyperactivity alone does not necessarily lead to delinquency. As Lahey, McBurnett and Loeber stated (2000), “hyperactivity leads to delinquency only when it occurs with physical aggression or oppositional behavior” (pg. 4). A dangerous combination of hyperactivity and physical or oppositional behavior can put children at risk of becoming violent young