Protective factors : theoretical assumptions, measurement tools and diagnostic efficacy of the construct in risk assessment of violence in youth (2017)
Assessment of the risk of violence is claimed as one of the main challenges in forensic diagnosis in juveniles. According to the Structured Professional Judgment (SPJ) approach, the risk of violence is dynamic, contextual and changeable. However, research suggests that it is necessary to include protective factors in the assessment, prediction, monitoring and management of risk that indirectly or directly reduce the likelihood of criminal aggression in minors. The aim of this article is to present the concept of protective factors in a context of the risk assessment approach, and to attempt to rationalise the need to study the role of protective factors in assessing the risk of violence from the perspective of contemporary psychopathology. Fields of application of the SPJ approach in forensic and clinical diagnosis have been characterised by tools designed for measuring protective factors in juveniles such as SAVRY or SAPROF-YV.
Keywords: psychologia