Psychological Trauma and Juvenile Delinquency: New Directions in Research and Intervention

Recent years have seen an explosion of new research dedicated to understanding the link between psychological trauma and juvenile delinquency. Building on the work of the previous decade that uncovered shocking rates of trauma exposure and posttraumatic stress among juvenile justice-involved youth, more recent work has focused on uncovering the underlying developmental mechanisms that account for the association between trauma and antisocial behavior as well as identifying the intervening processes that might encourage youth to be more positively social. In this volume, leading researchers share groundbreaking new research on these themes. Part I is dedicated to research investigating the moderating and mediating variables that might explain how childhood trauma is transformed into adolescent misbehavior. Strengths of these contributions include the range of traumas and traumatic reactions studied, attention to the relatively neglected female offender, and the diversity of samples used, including little-studied sexual minority youth. Part II describes innovative evidence-based treatments designed specifically to intervene with trauma among delinquent youth, including milieu, individual, group, family, and parenting interventions, as well as a novel youth theatre. The volume ends with reflections on social policy related to the development of a trauma-informed juvenile justice system. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Child and Adolescent Trauma.