ABSTRACT
The phenomenon of risk behaviors among adolescents has been extensively studied, but research and literature in this area has been focused mostly on negative characteristics and harmful behavior of this population. Following the principles of positive criminology, this chapter examines the impact of goodness on the world of youths. It is believed that an exposure to positive experiences such as generosity, carries positive values and impacts the behavior of youth at risk. Such an exposure might create for them a positive alternative and a chance to live their lives in an authentic way. However, self-centeredness, which is a main characteristic of the adolescent’s being in the word, limits adolescents’ ability to hold good and express themselves accordingly. The mechanism of self-centeredness is of survival, which manifests itself, among others, with a sense of strangeness and alienation in relation to others, and with an inability to see and engage with nothing outside their own. However, we suggest that a persistent and tenacious exposure to goodness, under certain conditions, has the power to reduce self-centeredness and may bring the adolescent to love and compassion, to see the others and even to develop a will to help and to support them – in other words – to strengthen the adolescent’s positive behavior in practice. Accordingly, this chapter proposes a model of a circular dynamic between the self-centeredness and the ability of youth at risk to hold and express goodness in their lives.
