What this resource explains
A person can show strong agency, resourcefulness, and persistence while pursuing a goal that increases harm. That is still goal-directed behavior, but the destination and available pathways are dangerous.
The practical move is not to dismiss the person's motivation. It is to understand what the harmful goal is providing—status, safety, income, belonging, control, or recognition—and help build another goal that can meet the underlying need.
ICM field application · illustrative
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Here is an example to work through. The linked source explains the idea or guest account. The next move is ICM guidance.
- Where it shows up
- A young person is persistent and resourceful in an activity that puts them at risk.
- A useful move
- Respect the capability, identify what the current goal supplies, and co-design a safer goal with a credible route to the same underlying need.
- What this does not prove
- Do not equate determination with safety or decide another person's goal without listening to them.
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Use the part you need next. A guest’s account, research finding, local pattern, and implementation plan answer different questions.
Understand the concept
Transtheoretical Model: Stages of Change
A five-stage behavior-change model used to meet people where they are rather than assume they are ready to act.
Read the referenceCheck the evidence
Resource & Evidence
Define the type of harm and place, inspect the data, and check what research can and cannot establish.
Examine sourcesWork through the decision
Third-Lane Decision Guide
Evaluate competing public-safety positions and build a response around results and likely consequences.
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