Pro-Social Gating Viability

This full conceptual preprint develops the concept of pro-social gating viability as a processual contribution to youth crime prevention theory. The article argues that youth crime prevention is weakened when policy and practice focus primarily on closing antisocial or criminal “gates” without specifying the functional conditions under which legitimate pathways become sufficiently passable, intelligible, role-bearing, recognitional, protective, consequence-clear, materially credible, and temporally durable for young people. The article is conceptual and theory-building. It does not present new primary empirical data. Instead, it offers an analytical synthesis of criminological theory, prevention literature, and publicly available policy and research material. Its central contribution is to shift the preventive question from why young people choose crime to under what conditions a legitimate pathway becomes viable enough to function as a real alternative to antisocial participation. The paper distinguishes formal availability from functional viability, develops an eight-dimensional framework for assessing legitimate pathway formation, and proposes an operational matrix for research, case analysis, programme design, and evaluation. It also specifies scope conditions, burdening conditions, and limits of operationalisation in order to support future empirical testing and policy application. This is the full conceptual preprint version. A shorter, journal-adapted version may be submitted for peer review.