Full Description
Juvenile crime doesn't just happen—there is always a story behind it.
Before Their Crimes: What We're Misunderstanding about Childhood Trauma, Youth Crime, and the Path to Healing is a ground-breaking book that sheds new light on the relationship of childhood trauma and juvenile crime. Wendy Smith uses the framework of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) to explain how the toxic stress of early childhood trauma can make children vulnerable to committing criminal acts. Smith draws from interviews with twenty men and women from across the racial and social divide who spent years in prison after committing serious crimes as children. Smith not only reveals the pernicious mechanisms that link early trauma to later crime, but also illuminates the potential for healing among even the most egregious offenders.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Prisoner at Pelican Bay
Chapter 1: Adverse Childhood Experiences and Broken Attachments
Chapter 2: The Brain and Stress in Childhood
Chapter 3: Beyond the Front Door
Chapter 4: Terror at Home: Domestic Violence
Chapter 5: Is It Part of Me? Sexual Child Abuse
Chapter 6: Sticks and Stones: Physical Child Abuse
Chapter 7: Down the Rabbit Hole: When Your Parent Dies
Chapter 8: Do I Matter at All? Physical and Emotional Neglect
Chapter 9: Murder in the Family
Chapter 10: The Lonely Chaotic Wake of Parental Drug Addiction
Chapter 11: Adrift in an Immoral World
Chapter 12: The Seductive Embrace of the Gang
Chapter 13: Prison
Chapter 14: The Path to Healing
Epilogue: Where They Are Now
Appendix A: Interview Protocol
Appendix B: Adverse Childhood Experiences
References
Index
About the Author
