Young, Bound and Broken

At the heart of the human experience, over 70% of people from all creeds and cultures encounter trauma (Kessler et al., 2017). As such, it comes as no surprise that over the past few decades, traumatic events such as school shootings and school brawls have become highly publicised. Meanwhile, increased media focus on murders by minors, juvenile delinquency, and cyberbullying continue to drive trauma into popular discourse (Holman et al., 2020). In light of such pervasiveness, the media tend to portray such offenders' backgrounds as chaotic and dysfunctional, frequently mentioning childhood abuse. As a result, early traumatic experiences are often associated with future acts of violence. However, is it based on fact? 

Numerous studies have suggested a link between childhood trauma and subsequent criminal behaviour (Altintas & Bilici, 2018; Barnert et al., 2021; Ford et al., 2020; Lambie & Gluckman, 2018). Consequently, general trends have emerged from the literature: 1) Childhood trauma is disproportionately prevalent among those who offend 2) Traumatic events affect multiple areas of functioning, including emotion, cognition, social interaction, and behaviour, and 3) Certain consequences of such trauma appear to be associated with criminal behaviour (Altintas & Bilici, 2018; Bevan, 2017; Wamser-Nanney & Cherry, 2018). This literature review examines how traumatic events affect multiple areas of functioning, including emotion, cognition, social interaction, and behaviour.  Additionally, it illustrates the correlation between childhood trauma and offending with respect to trauma informed practice. 

Trauma

By definition, trauma is an emotional response to a terrible event (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). In reality, it is far more complex. Research indicates that physical, sexual, or emotional trauma has shown to have predictable and immediate effects on personality development, emotional disorders as well as co-morbid conditions including substance abuse, and antisocial behaviour in adulthood (Thordarson & Rector, 2020). Further, childhood trauma, whether physical, sexual, or emotional, has been linked to an increased risk of violent and aggressive behaviour and criminality across the lifespan. 

Trauma is intensified when grounded in a chain of experiences or events. Consequently, recurrent maltreatment, or maltreatment in multiple forms, are more likely to promote criminal behaviour (Lambie & Gluckman, 2018). This form of cumulative trauma is commonly referred to as Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), defined by traumatic events that can occur during childhood and adolescence, such as being a victim of physical, emotional, or sexual abuse; seeing violence in the home; or learning about a family member attempting or dying by suicide (Jones et al., 2020). Recently, the Ministry of Justice (2020) reported that 97% of children in the criminal justice system aged 10 to 13 had prior reports of care-and-protection concerns made to Oranga Tamariki while a rate of 88% was observed for young people aged 14 to 17. Given the prevalence of ACEs among known offenders, it is critical to note that a higher number of ACEs correlates with serious, violent, and chronic offending across the life course. Therefore, understanding the origins and impacts of trauma  is an increasingly important area in justice settings (Baglivio et al., 2020; Malvaso et al., 2021; Toth & Manly, 2019). 

Brain and Behaviour

When multiple events combine to create trauma, adverse physical and emotional effects can emerge, leading to profound impacts on an individual's development (Cross et al., 2017). These effects can combine to dull affective development and socialisation, as well as an individual's self-esteem and ability to form relationships with others (Liotti, 2017). Aside from the immediate negative consequences, early child maltreatment disrupts normal child development, particularly the processes by which children identify, express, and manage emotions (Lambie, 2020). As such, trauma can impact on developmental processes in a variety of ways, including: difficulties anticipating the consequences of behaviour, leading to inappropriate aggression; difficulties judging danger and safety, resulting in over or underestimated danger; and difficulties in regulating behaviour in order to accomplish long-term goals (Hébert et al., 2018; Myers & Llera, 2020). Associated challenges frequently result in behaviour’s that alleviate the distress such as drinking, drug use, and potential offending (Jones et al., 2020; Te Uepū Hāpai i te Ora, 2019). 

Although the effect of trauma on the brain is a developing field of study, research has indicated that trauma and injury to the brain have been shown to have influence on systems that are critical for impulsivity, aggression, and mood (Lambie, 2020). Further, early trauma experiences may alter biological stress systems, and these systemic changes disturb neurological development of attention, decision-making, learning, and stress (Rock et al., 2018). This is especially significant if patterns of violence persist over time, as the brain undergoes synaptic proliferation and pruning between early childhood and adulthood (Meyers et al., 2019). As a result, trauma can be deeply embedded.

For many young people, the anatomical and functional development of the prefrontal cortex, which assists with regulating behaviour, may not reach full maturity until the third decade of life (Bouvette-Turcot et al., 2018; Lambie, 2020). As one of the areas of the brain along with the amygdala and hippocampus that are part of the stress response, their development has influence on the brain’s response to stress (Rock et al., 2018; Stensrud et al., 2019). For example, the amygdala and the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) are responsible for processing immediate reactions to stimuli regarding emotions, survival, and stored affective memories about events (Banker et al., 2019). The HPA instructs the endocrine system to stimulate a general sensory–motor response such as flight or fight. Memories activate this automatic response in reaction to any new event or stimulus perceived to be similar to the initial trauma. Essentially, untreated trauma can result in repeated stress reactions as the body expects to be traumatised (Stensrud et al., 2019).

Attachment

Further to development, relational trauma can deprive children of the ability to form secure attachments. Toth and Manly (2019) posit that children who have been abused, neglected, or ignored develop emotions of insecurity and disorganised attachment processes, that can manifest as stress, avoidance, and anger. Further, when caregivers are emotionally unavailable, abusive, or neglectful, children are prone to experience emotional distress and are unlikely to develop an awareness that the external environment can provide comfort (Baradon, 2018; Cross et al., 2017; Glatz et al., 2019). Thus, children with insecure attachment patterns have difficulty relying on others for assistance and are unable to self-regulate their emotional states. Excessive anxiety, anger, and a desire for intimacy that is often later found in antisocial peers can manifest as a result (Toof et al., 2020). These emotions can become so intense that they trigger dissociative episodes or self-defeating anger (Liotti, 2017). Taken together, internal working models give children the belief that they are valuable and that others can be trusted, or that they are unlovable and that the world is untrustworthy (Toof et al., 2020). 

Physical Trauma

Childhood experience of physical trauma, directly or as a witness, sustains risk for adulthood criminal behaviour (Bevan, 2017). Such abuse, particularly head trauma, can also have a long-term effect on development, especially where brain, hearing and vision damage are concerned (Lambie, 2020; Williams et al., 2018). Aside from the physical impacts, emotional effects of physical trauma are also known to manifest across the life course with greater risk for developing a range of issues including low self-esteem, depression, hostility towards others, and aggression (Adams et al., 2018; Goddard & Pooley, 2019). Consistent with previous research, a study by (Howell et al., 2017) identified distinct associations between specific types of childhood victimisation and adolescent offending. Criminality was found to be significantly associated with childhood experiences of physical violence, witnessed violence, and neglect among adolescents. Indeed, both witnessing and experiencing intimate partner violence and physical abuse have been linked with aggressive, criminal behaviour during childhood and adolescence (Glatz et al., 2019; Howell et al., 2017; Williams et al., 2018). 

Emotional Trauma

Emotional trauma is a more hidden form of childhood maltreatment. However, it is generally defined by parental abuse, which includes demeaning, isolating, and corruptive engagement that increases the risk of low self-esteem, hostility, and dissociative symptoms (Goddard & Pooley, 2019; Neller & Fabian, 2006; Shin et al., 2017). According to developmental research, exposure to childhood maltreatment impairs normative personality development. Given the critical role of nurturing in a child's personality development, emotionally abused children who frequently live in hostile environments may struggle to develop positive personality traits.

According to DeLisi et al. (2018), negative emotionality is a primary predictor of antisocial behaviour and children who struggle with their behaviour show three main issues: 1) a struggle to control emotional impulses in favour of socially acceptable responses. These impairments in effortful control manifest during childhood and adolescence, and when they are severe, they reflect a lack of absolute stability across the lifespan. 2) a high level of negative emotionality (anger and hostility), as opposed to emotions such as anxiety and depression, and 3) effortful control and negative emotionality frequently interact.  That is, behavioural traits are overtaken by low control and high negative emotionality which increases the risk of conduct problems, as well as eliciting adverse feelings from others (DeLisi et al., 2018, 2019).

Sexual Trauma 

According to Banker et al. (2019), a single experience of sexual abuse as a child is comparable to living with chronic stress for a lifetime. Numerous studies, have discovered associations between a history of child sex abuse and a wide range of negative outcomes, including mental health problems, substance and alcohol abuse, suicidal behaviour, additional victimisation, poor education, physical health instability, and decreased life satisfaction (Banker et al., 2019; Perez et al., 2018; Rehan et al., 2019). Among these negative consequences, research has consistently demonstrated that sexually abused children are at an increased risk of perpetrating family violence. 

In a study of traumatic experiences within the prison population, almost one-fifth of prisoners reported an experience of sexual assault or rape (Bevan, 2017). Notably, 53% of women had been sexually assaulted, which is more than twice the rate for women in the general population (Bevan, 2017). According to a critical review conducted by Papalia et al. (2018), child sex abuse is associated with an increased risk of engaging in a range of violent and nonviolent criminal outcomes when compared to individuals who have never experienced abuse (Papalia et al., 2018). While the study acknowledged that a variety of factors contribute to the sexual trauma offending pathway, this did not invalidate the specific association between sexual violence associated and an increased tendency to engage in crime.

Intergenerational Trauma

Soul wounds are defined as trauma caused by historical events that echo through time and generations (Pihama et al., 2017). Indeed, trauma inflicted on individuals can combine to create a phenomena that is distinct from the sum of the individual wounds. That is, trauma has a social component (Pihama et al., 2017). In New Zealand, it is recognised that the process of colonisation, along with loss of lands, culture, and identity, has had damaging effects including overrepresentation of Māori in criminal justice statistics (Government Inquiry into Mental Health and Addiction, 2018; Te Uepū Hāpai i te Ora, 2019). 

Given the significant harm of child maltreatment across the life course(Kessler et al., 2017), considerable interest has been placed on the intergenerational transmission of trauma at the family level. In particular, whether or not a parent's experience of childhood maltreatment increases the likelihood that his or her child will be maltreated, thereby perpetuating the harm (Greene et al., 2020). An investigation by Lünnemann et al. (2019) found evidence for the intergenerational trauma transmission from traumatised parents to their children. Similarly, a meta-analysis by Assink et al. (2019) revealed a significant summary effect of intergenerational transmission of child maltreatment, which can be considered substantial in light of the scale of other risk factors for child maltreatment victimisation. 

Early Intervention and Trauma Informed Practice

Research suggests that identifying risk factors for offending and applying relevant methods aimed to reduce them, provides the key to successful evidence-based prevention (Howell et al., 2017; Lambie & Gluckman, 2018; Te Uepū Hāpai i te Ora, 2019). Further solutions include early identification and developmental crime prevention strategies for children who have experienced any type of childhood victimisation. Assessment of such histories can help services to develop more tailored intervention strategies for prevention and recidivism (Government Inquiry into Mental Health and Addiction, 2018). In addition to assessing exposure to trauma, interventions might include targeting risk factors for reoffending with a focus on psychological trauma-focused treatments. Such therapy is critical, as approximately 15% of children and adolescents who have experienced abuse or trauma are diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (Lambie & Gluckman, 2018).

Early engagement can prevent intergenerational trauma and effectively address offending when attended to in collaboration between school, health and community service support networks (Jones et al., 2020). As such, a call for meaningful partnership of social services, policing, schools, families, communities and agencies should be developed at local and national levels to address crime risk factors related to trauma. This combined effort is of particular importance to communities who are significantly over-represented in the criminal-justice system and requires a readiness to consistently confront enduring issues from a holistic and culturally responsive approach.

Young people who have experienced trauma face a number of barriers to engaging in and maintaining participation in interventions, even those that are explicitly designed with their best interests in mind (Lambie & Gluckman, 2018). Thordarson and Rector (2020) posit that trauma can only be addressed effectively within systems that are trauma-informed. In regard to justice settings, the lack of control, hopelessness over circumstances, required security protocols, and exposure to institutional violence can initiate trauma-induced coping skills. As such, service providers should recognise that some of these coping strategies may have been built over time as an adaptive response to trauma. As such, acknowledging trauma and recognising the effects can inform engagement strategies that generate positive outcomes for young offenders with trauma adverse childhood experiences (Pihama et al., 2017).

Conclusion

This literature review explored the effects of trauma and Adverse Childhood Experiences in relation to criminal behaviour. In general, trauma is a complex interaction of negative events and the effects are just as multidimensional. In any case, trauma can adversely affect children across biological, psychological and social domains with a strong prediction of adverse outcomes, especially for those in the justice system. While this review did not cover all concepts related to childhood trauma and offending, it did call attention to the relevance of examining specific forms of childhood victimisation to gain a better understanding of how trauma histories contribute to criminal activity. This is not to obscure the harm that violence and other forms of crime cause to individuals and communities; rather, it is an attempt to ensure that individuals, communities, and policymakers respond to crime more effectively (Te Uepū Hāpai i te Ora, 2019). 

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