PONE-D-23-15234Protective factors, risk factors, and intervention strategies in the prevention and reduction of crime in 12–24-year-old: A Scoping Review ProtocolPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Rooney, 

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

Please submit your revised manuscript by  Apr 04 2024 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript:

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• An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Manuscript'.

If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter.

If applicable, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io to enhance the reproducibility of your results. Protocols.io assigns your protocol its own identifier (DOI) so that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols. Additionally, PLOS ONE offers an option for publishing peer-reviewed Lab Protocol articles, which describe protocols hosted on protocols.io. Read more information on sharing protocols at https://plos.org/protocols?utm_medium=editorial-email&utm_source=authorletters&utm_campaign=protocols.

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Johannes John-Langba, Ph.D., M.P.H., M.S.W

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Additional Editor Comments:

Both reviewers however think that the manuscript is presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English. But although one of the reviewers evaluates the manuscript as technically sound with data that supports the conclusions,  both reviewers howefer reported that all data underlying the findings in their manuscript have not been made fully available.  

You are therefore invited to undertake a major revision of the manuscript and submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised by both reviwers.

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: N/A

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: Based on the Abstract/Introduction, the study (Systematic Review) is an important topic. However, the manuscript is a bit confusing, overall.

1. Pages 1-3 are duplicated within the manuscript. Also, there is no clear Abstract, as the Abstract and Introduction are combined.

2. On the bottom of page 6, last paragraph, there needs to be a subheading, "Aim of Study" or "Purpose of Study."

3. Throughout the manuscript, there are both present and future tenses. If the study/review has already been conducted, it should be past tense.

4. There is no Findings section. What did you researchers find/conclude within the study/review? What do the Findings suggest in relationship to any proposed questions?

5. The last paragraph discusses limitations, but what are the limitations based on?

Based on what was presented, I do not recommend this manuscript for publication. However, through major revisions it could be and resubmitted and reviewed.

Reviewer #2: Reviewer comments: Protective factors, risk factors, and intervention strategies in the prevention and reduction of crime in 12–24-year-old: A Scoping Review Protocol

Identifying risk factors and developing risk typologies is an important area of study in crime prevention and reduction among youth. The authors have presented the gaps in the literature on at risk populations such as First Nations groups from countries such as Australia, Canada and New Zealand. As such, this paper presents the first scoping review of primary studies of protective factors, risk factors, and intervention strategies in the prevention and reduction of crime in 12-24-year-olds, inclusive of First Nations communities. The paper is well written and is addressing a very important topic, given that crime among young people as young as 12 has child protection implications and in general has social and economic consequences. However, paper has some important limitations especially regarding the method mentioned below.

Please find my comments following my review.

Abstract

1. Authors to follow the guidelines on writing an unstructured abstract in PLOS One

2. Provide a concise description of the main aim/objective of the scoping review and state this as an aim. E.g. The aim of this scoping review is…

Introduction

The introduction section can be synthesised into four succinct paragraphs

1. Paragraph one introduces the main problem

i. Youth offending and why it is a problem?

ii. What have other countries found about youth offending, risk factors and protective factors ?

iii. How have other countries dealt with youth offending and how has the identification of protective and risk factors influenced youth offending interventions?

2. Paragraph two looks at the specific problem from a contextual perspective (i.e. among First Nations communities)

i. What is the prevalence of youth offending among First Nations communities?

3. Paragraph three introduces the gap in the literature

4. Paragraph four explain/justify why the review questions/objectives lend themselves to a scoping review approach?

Methods

1. Authors to follow the PLOS One (PRISMA-ScR) Checklist on structuring the methods section

a. Protocol and registration

b. Eligibility criteria

c. Information sources

d. Search

e. Selection of sources of evidence

f. Data charting process

g. Data items

h. Critical appraisal of individual sources of evidence

i. Synthesis of results

2. Outline what the five steps of the Arksey and O’Malley framework are

3. What framework was used to inform the development of the research questions?

4. Clarify if the data extraction process is informed by the Joanna Briggs Institute’s template for data extraction or which tool will be used for this.

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6. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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[NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files.]

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Attachments

Attachment

Submitted filename: Reviewer comments PONE-D-23-15234.pdf

PONE-D-23-15234R1Protective factors, risk factors, and intervention strategies in the prevention and reduction of crime in 12–24-year-old: A Scoping Review ProtocolPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Rooney,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

Please submit your revised manuscript by Oct 03 2024 11:59PM. If you will need more time to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript:

• A rebuttal letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'.
• A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'.
• An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Manuscript'.

If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter.

If applicable, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io to enhance the reproducibility of your results. Protocols.io assigns your protocol its own identifier (DOI) so that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols. Additionally, PLOS ONE offers an option for publishing peer-reviewed Lab Protocol articles, which describe protocols hosted on protocols.io. Read more information on sharing protocols at https://plos.org/protocols?utm_medium=editorial-email&utm_source=authorletters&utm_campaign=protocols.

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

AKM Alamgir, PhD

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Journal Requirements:

Please review your reference list to ensure that it is complete and correct. If you have cited papers that have been retracted, please include the rationale for doing so in the manuscript text, or remove these references and replace them with relevant current references. Any changes to the reference list should be mentioned in the rebuttal letter that accompanies your revised manuscript. If you need to cite a retracted article, indicate the article’s retracted status in the References list and also include a citation and full reference for the retraction notice.

[Note: HTML markup is below. Please do not edit.]

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #3: (No Response)

Reviewer #4: (No Response)

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #3: No

Reviewer #4: Yes

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3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #3: N/A

Reviewer #4: N/A

**********

4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #3: No

Reviewer #4: No

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5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #3: Yes

Reviewer #4: Yes

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6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #3: (No Response)

Reviewer #4: 2. This manuscript presents a well-organized and methodologically sound scoping review protocol. The authors have used established frameworks, such as the Arksey and O'Malley framework and PRISMA-ScR guidelines which are appropriate for the study. While this is a protocol and does not yet include data or conclusions, the outlined plan is robust and should effectively guide the research process.

3. Given that this is a scoping review protocol, statistical analysis is not conducted. The manuscript is focused on mapping existing literature, identify gaps and provide an overview of key concepts and evidence.

4. Since this is a protocol, no findings or data are presented yet. Once the scoping review is completed, the authors will need to ensure that all data underlying their results are made fully available in accordance to PLOS's data availability requirement.

5. The manuscript is clearly written, well structured and easy to follow. The authors have effectively communicated their research plan, and the language used is precise and professional.

General comments: Overall, this manuscript outlines a clear and comprehensive protocol for conducting a scoping review on youth crime, with a particular emphasis on identifying key risk and protective factors as well as intervention strategies, especially for First Nations Populations. The methodology is appropriate, and the writing is clear.

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #3: No

Reviewer #4: Yes: Ms. Susan Mary Pradhan

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[NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files.]

While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/. PACE helps ensure that figures meet PLOS requirements. To use PACE, you must first register as a user. Registration is free. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email PLOS at figures@plos.org. Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step.

Attachments

Attachment

Submitted filename: REVIEWERS COMMENTS.pdf

PONE-D-23-15234R2Protective factors, risk factors, and intervention Strategies in the prevention and reduction of crime among adolescents and young adults aged 12-24 years: A scoping review protocolPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Rooney,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

Please submit your revised manuscript by Nov 20 2024 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript:

• A rebuttal letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'.
• A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'.
• An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Manuscript'.

If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter.

If applicable, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io to enhance the reproducibility of your results. Protocols.io assigns your protocol its own identifier (DOI) so that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols. Additionally, PLOS ONE offers an option for publishing peer-reviewed Lab Protocol articles, which describe protocols hosted on protocols.io. Read more information on sharing protocols at https://plos.org/protocols?utm_medium=editorial-email&utm_source=authorletters&utm_campaign=protocols.

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

AKM Alamgir, PhD

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Journal Requirements:

Please review your reference list to ensure that it is complete and correct. If you have cited papers that have been retracted, please include the rationale for doing so in the manuscript text, or remove these references and replace them with relevant current references. Any changes to the reference list should be mentioned in the rebuttal letter that accompanies your revised manuscript. If you need to cite a retracted article, indicate the article’s retracted status in the References list and also include a citation and full reference for the retraction notice.

[Note: HTML markup is below. Please do not edit.]

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #3: All comments have been addressed

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #3: Partly

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3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #3: N/A

**********

4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #3: Yes

**********

5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #3: Yes

**********

6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #3: Dear Authors,

I would like to commend you all for the effort in improving your review protocol manuscript and appreciate the opportunity to review your impeccable work.

Please see the minor revisions outlined below:

Abstract:

• Conclusion (Page 2, lines 63-65): Remove the sentence: “This scoping review protocol aims to systematically map key risk and protective factors, as well as intervention strategies, for preventing and reducing youth crime, including among First Nations populations.”

• Conclusion (revision): Remove the dash in “model—from” throughout the paragraph, as it does not reflect a professional writing style:

“Anticipated findings suggest that current research has extensively examined factors across all levels of the socioecological model, from individual to community levels, revealing a predominant focus on individual-level predictors such as substance use, prior criminal history, and moral development. The review is expected to identify effective interventions that address critical factors within each domain, including Multisystemic Therapy (MST) and Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care (MTFC), which have shown promise in reducing youth crime. Additionally, it will likely highlight significant trends in risk and protective factors, such as the dual role of academic achievement—both as a risk and protective factor—and the impact of family-based interventions. The review will also address gaps in research, particularly regarding Indigenous youth, underscoring the need for targeted studies to better understand their unique challenges. These findings will guide future research and inform the development of comprehensive prevention and early intervention programs tailored to diverse youth populations.”

• Ensure that the abstract does not exceed 300 words, as per the journal's guidelines:

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Introduction:

• Page 5 (Introduction, line 129): Include the author’s surname in the sentence: “Critics argue that…”.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Critical Appraisal of Individual Sources of Evidence:

• Revise the structure of the following sentence (Page 12, Line 291): “In accordance with the Arksey and O’Malley framework (2005) [30], the scoping review does not involve a formal risk of bias or quality assessment of included sources.”

• Replace the term “Forgo” in the sentence on Page 12, line 305: “Thus, the decision to forgo a risk of bias….” with a more alternative term that will accommodate non-academic audience.

• Adhere to the journal’s in-text referencing guidelines: “This approach is supported by the framework and methodology outlined by Levac et al. (2010)...”

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

PRISMA Flowchart:

• (Page 19, lines 475-476): In the flowchart, add a category for duplicates removed during the IDENTIFICATION phase to confirm whether additional records identified were included in the total screened records.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

General:

• The manuscript outlines a clear and robust protocol for conducting a scoping review on this topical area. Once the analysis is completed, ensure that the results are made accessible in appropriate repositories.

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #3: No

**********

[NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files.]

While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/. PACE helps ensure that figures meet PLOS requirements. To use PACE, you must first register as a user. Registration is free. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email PLOS at figures@plos.org. Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step.

Protective factors, risk factors, and intervention Strategies in the prevention and reduction of crime among adolescents and young adults aged 12-24 years: A scoping review protocol

PONE-D-23-15234R3

Dear Dr. Rooney,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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If your institution or institutions have a press office, please notify them about your upcoming paper to help maximize its impact. If they’ll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team as soon as possible -- no later than 48 hours after receiving the formal acceptance. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information, please contact onepress@plos.org.

Kind regards,

AKM Alamgir, PhD

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments: