Minor Criminal Risk Factors

Minor criminal risk factors are a broad set of individual and environmental characteristics. Compared to moderate and major risk factors (identified later in this entry), minor risk factors have a weaker association with criminal behavior. Examples of minor criminal risk factors include family structure, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. Also included are mental health disorders, cognitive challenges, and community demographics. Despite their low predictive ability, minor risk factors are often the focus of crime research, crime prevention efforts, and offender treatment programs. This is because minor risk factors are theory-driven and retain the potential to contribute to criminal behavior. This entry focuses on minor criminal risk factors in the context of the Risk-Need-Responsivity (RNR) model. Theoretical origins of common minor risk factors and two important roles ...

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