Author Archives: Juvenile Justice Information Exchange

We have to partner with law enforcement around trauma

December 13, 2016 By in Adverse childhood experiences, Child trauma, Community prevention programs, Solutions 1 Comment
By Kathleen McNamara 

jjie_kathy-mcnamara-2-16-12-13Is there a need for trauma-informed training for police officers? Let me share an example of a situation where the outcome could have been very different if the responding officer had been trauma-informed.

I was working with a young man on probation who was a trauma survivor. He was being tested for drugs, and, unfortunately, the environment triggered a traumatic response. He came running out of the bathroom and I followed him as he wandered around in a highly agitated state. I was able to talk with him and was working on helping him reconnect with his environment.

Continue reading →

Police and Black Teens: “If I Get Pulled Over Today…”

October 12, 2016 By in Adverse childhood experiences, Child trauma, Community prevention programs, Solutions Leave a comment

By JJIE Staff
 At the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metro Atlanta, Michael Gandy, now 28, draws from personal experience as a young black teen. He talks to his mentor and “big brother” Austin Scee, 44, about police, mentorship and the community’s responsibility in the nationwide conversation concerning youth and law enforcement.
Scee: So, Mike, I thought given everything that’s been going on in our country, now might be a good time to revisit something that happened to you and to me in 2008 when you drove up to our house. [My wife] and I met you at the end of the driveway. You were driving your mother’s car, which was a beat-up old car with, I think, fairly heavily tinted windows. You had a police car trailing you as you drove up our street. You made an illegal U-turn in a four-way stop to park in front of our house —

Continue reading →

Kids and drugs: A new theory

October 6, 2016 By in Adverse childhood experiences, Child trauma, Solutions, Trauma 2 Comments

Videography by Marco Poggio

By Karen Savage
NEW YORK — Author and reporter Maia Szalavitz, who writes about substance use and related issues recently spoke with Youth Today and JJIE about her experience and her newest book: “Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding Addiction,” released in April. Here’s Szalavitz’s take on addiction and its complexities, from her own experience and in her own words.

A sin or a learning disorder?

There’s traditionally been two ways of seeing addiction. Either it’s a sin and you’re a horrible bad person and you are just choosing to be a hedonist, or it’s a chronic progressive disease. While I certainly believe addiction is a medical problem that should be dealt with by the health system, the way we’ve conceptualized addiction as a disease is not actually accurate. Continue reading →

False confessions make it harder to establish innocence for alleged juvenile offenders

September 30, 2016 By in Adverse childhood experiences, Community prevention programs, Solutions 1 Comment

krisberg_barry-1-336x525

Barry Krisberg

By Barry Krisberg

The national media has widely reported the story of Brendan Dassey, whose murder and sexual assault convictions were reversed by a federal court in Milwaukee on Aug. 12; he had served nearly nine years in prison. He was ordered released unless prosecutors wanted to file a new charge.

Dassey, who was 16 at the time of his arrest, was a central figure in a very popular Netflix documentary — “Making a Murderer.” The court found that the youth was mentally unfit and was coerced into confessing his involvement in the crime by false promises by investigators. The court held that his confession was involuntary under the Fifth and Fourteenth amendments. His lawyer had not challenged the propriety of the confession.

Continue reading →

We must decriminalize trauma for girls with histories of abuse or neglect

September 25, 2016 By in Adverse childhood experiences, Child trauma 4 Comments

Desi-SmithBy Neha Desai and Dr. Allison Briscoe-Smith 

Girls’ involvement in the juvenile justice system is growing disproportionately at a time when arrest rates for boys are declining. And yet, girls’ behavior has not changed; rather, our response to their behavior has changed. This is especially true for girls in the child welfare system.

Much has been written recently about the “pathways” that lead youth, especially girls of color, from histories of childhood abuse and/or neglect to involvement with the juvenile justice system. We are starting to better understand the ways in which childhood exposure to trauma can lead to survival strategies and behaviors that are criminalized, while child welfare system involvement can exacerbate underlying trauma and result in law enforcement contact for youth who otherwise would have had none.

Continue reading →

What does trauma-informed mean to foster youth?

September 20, 2016 By in ACE Study, Adverse childhood experiences, Child abuse, Child trauma, Solutions Leave a comment

Alisa 2015 Headshot

Alisa Santucci

By Alisa Santucci

For three decades, I have listened in awe to the brave voices of children, youth and families who have shared, in anguish, their past experiences — experiences that anyone would objectively call “adverse” and ones that can have lasting effects on health and well-being.

The seminal CDC-Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences Study opened my eyes to how pervasive their stories were and how these findings might influence the development of effective interventions and treatment, especially for system-involved young people.

Continue reading →

We need to understand how to provide trauma-informed care

September 12, 2016 By in Adverse childhood experiences, Child trauma, Solutions, Trauma 4 Comments

 

photo-e1468611152131-sqr

Beverly Tobiason, clinical director, Pima County (AZ) Juvenile Court Center

By Beverly Tobiason

The philosophy of trauma-informed care is becoming more and more embedded in the philosophies and practices of child-serving agencies.

Continue reading →

%d bloggers like this: