“It Changed My Life”: Traumatic Loss, Behavioral Health, and Turning Points Among Gang-Involved and Justice-Involved Youth

Abstract

An especially vulnerable population to traumatic loss, violence exposure, and posttraumatic stress symptoms are those involved in the juvenile justice system. However, justice-involved youth are not a homogeneous group. Research looking at subpopulations within juvenile justice systems highlight the diverse backgrounds and treatment needs of justice-involved youth such as those who are also gang-involved. The current study seeks to address the interrelated issues of behavioral health, traumatic grief, loss, and self-reported turning points among a sample of formerly incarcerated youth who report extensive juvenile justice histories ( N = 62). All youth participated in an extensive survey interview. Just over half (56.5%) of the youth reported being gang-involved. Chi-square analyses revealed that gang- and justice-involved youth were significantly more likely to have experienced traumatic loss compared with their justice-only peers (χ2 = 4.265, p < .05). Gang involvement approximately doubled youth’s exposure to community violence, both direct and witnessed, and there were significant differences in the levels of posttraumatic stress symptoms and substance use, between the gang- and justice-involved youth compared with the justice-only youth. When asked to describe a turning point in their lives, 15% of the sample described significant loss and how it affected their lives, for better or worse. Findings lend support for a focus on supporting posttraumatic growth and increasing access to trauma-focused treatment, with an emphasis on grief and loss, for those who are both gang- and justice-involved.

Incarcerated Young Men and Boys: Trauma, Masculinity and the Need for Trauma-Informed, Gender-Sensitive Correctional Care

“…Approximately three-quarters of young men in custodial settings, or who have histories of gang involvement, have experienced traumatic losses, separations or bereavements (such as murders, suicides and distressing accidents) (Dierkhising et al, 2019, Vaswani, 2014. It is important to recognise that imprisoned young men and boys tend to come from violent and traumatic environments such that male trauma is far more likely to be experienced in public, compared to incarcerated women and girls, who are more likely to experience violence and trauma in private settings (Chesney-Lind and Paramore, 2001, Greenfeld, 1999, Schwartz, 2013.…”

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing in Child and Adolescent Psychology: a Narrative Review

“…Moving to a slightly different topic, some studies [85,86] illustrate that children with antisocial behaviors have high levels of traumatic exposure. In a study by Soberman et al [87], 29 boys with conduct problems were randomized into groups receiving standard care or standard care plus three traumafocused EMDR sessions.…”

Trauma exposure and adolescent gang involvement: Distinguishing the roles of specific posttraumatic stress symptoms.

“…Recently, trauma-informed perspectives on gang involvement (Beresford & Wood, 2016; Kerig et al, 2013; Kerig & Mendez, 2022) have garnered increasing support and emphasize trauma exposure as a prominent risk factor propelling youth toward gang participation. Compared to adolescents who are not gang members, gang-involved youth report disproportionate exposure to childhood traumatic experiences, including physical and sexual abuse, as well as domestic and community violence witnessing and victimization (e.g., Augustyn et al, 2017; Dierkhising et al, 2021; Kerig et al, 2016; Nydegger et al, 2019), with evidence indicating that these experiences begin as early as the preschool years (Bocanegra & Stolbach, 2012). In turn, research shows that childhood experiences of trauma are consistently linked to an increased likelihood of adolescent gang involvement (Coid et al, 2013; Joseph & Rembert, 2022; Mendez et al, 2020; Petering, 2016; Valdez, 2021).…”

“…In this regard, applying a trauma-informed approach to understanding gang involvement may also be helpful. As a likely outcome of their extensive histories of exposure to childhood trauma, gang-involved youth endorse high rates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS; Dierkhising et al, 2021; Harris et al, 2013; Nydegger et al, 2019; Petering, 2016; Valdez, 2021). For example, Harris et al (2013) reviewed over 7,000 mental health records of justice-involved youth and found that those who identified as gang members were almost two times more likely to meet diagnostic criteria for PTSD than youth who denied gang involvement.…”