Protective factors, correctional treatment and desistance

A confusing array of empirical and conceptual definitions has been offered for protective factors and related terms. This paper reviews these, and recent scales that include protective factors, for their treatment implications. The scales, and the small volume of treatment research on protective factors reveal a similar amount of confusion: most notably with regard to whether protective factors are really different from risk factors except in name. Next, I argue that research on desistance has also examined several protective factors, such as the relationship of release planning to various positive intermediate community outcomes that may mediate desistance effects. Three conceptualizations of protective factors in treatment and desistance are described, before I conclude that calling a factor protective may not automatically enhance treatment effectiveness or desistance support, and that more research is needed, including studies that examine the potential effects of correctional treatment on positive outcomes.