What is a Shared Risk and Protective Factors Approach?

Multiple forms of violence are inter-connected and often have the same contributing factors and root causes. Understanding and addressing these overlapping factors and causes can help protect people and communities and help practitioners better prevent violence.

Contributing factors can be categorized into risk and protective factors. Risk factors are things that make it more likely that people will experience violence. Protective factors are things that can make it less likely that people will experience violence or make them more resilient when they are faced with risk factors.

Focusing on shared risk and protective factors can help us understand connections between multiple forms of violence, prevent these forms of violence simultaneously, develop new partnerships, leverage resources/funding streams, and consider a larger pool of strategies.

If you want additional information on shared risk and protective factors, you can read CDC’s Connecting the Dots: An Overview of the Links Among Multiple Forms of Violence or view Veto Violence’s Connecting the Dots training.

Adapted from Preventing Multiple Forms of Violence: A Strategic Vision for Connecting the Dots.
Atlanta, GA: Division of Violence Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention
and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2016.