ABSTRACT
Very few studies have empirically tested factors of professional misconduct against youth, and the few conducted tested a limited number of factors. Most literature sources stating the factors of misconduct are based on anecdotal evidence: professional experience, professional opinion, and reports of cases. While it may be apparent how some proposed factors work-improper screening that fails to prevent the hiring of known offenders, for example-it is still important to more thoroughly assess their impacts through objective research. Predatory tendencies of certain individuals and failure of screening to detect them explain serious violent and sexual forms of misconduct, but these are not representative of most forms. Thus, it is doubtful that these factors explain a great deal of the employee misconduct that takes place in youth work. Also, the impacts of some factors-organizational, community, and societal-level factors for example-may not be clear. Regardless, literature based on practical knowledge has identified plausible factors of employee misconduct.
