Many risk factors that help in predicting future criminality, such as a poor home environment, having parents who are alcoholics or who have poor parental skills, being abused as a child, difficulties in concentrating while at school, and so on, can be identified at an early stage. In social crime prevention early intervention is stressed, and children and young persons are thus its main target group. What is important is preventing marginalization, since many factors that promote development as an offender are connected with poor living conditions and marginalization.

Social crime prevention can also be targeted on adults, especially on recidivists, the developing criminal career of whom should be interrupted at as early a stage as possible.