Risk and Protective Factors for Children Facing the Criminal Justice System

Juvenile delinquency as an antisocial phenomenon is characterized by features and specific notes of the age category as well as by personality characteristics within a particular socio-economic and cultural framework. Juvenile antisocial manifestations should be understood by taking into account the conjugate (perspective of multiple causality) of individual psychological, social, cultural factors. The aim of this paper is to highlight the socio-cultural diversity within the criminal justice system as protective or risk factors for the resilience of youth delinquents. The educational and residential climate in which the minors live marks significant differences between resilient and non-resilient minors. Resilient adolescents live in a positive emotional climate and are immersed in a non-conflictual environment, cohesion, in which their autonomy and openness are improved. At the same time, their educational climate pleads for the value of success and promotes stable religious values.

Keywords: criminal justice system, diversity, socio-cultural context, resilience, minors