TRAUMA INFORMED JUVENILE JUSTICE

At thirteen-years-old, Joan was all of 4'6" and weighed eighty-five pounds soaking wet. One day, while on the way home from school, Joan walked up and hit a woman in public. She did this again and again. Each time, she hit a different woman and then left. Joan was arrested and charged with multiple counts of misdemeanor and felony assaults in juvenile delinquency court. I became Joan's public defender. Joan was born in extreme poverty to an alcoholic, crack-addicted mother. Joan was addicted to crack at birth and experienced withdrawal in her first breaths of life. Joan's mother had struggled due to her own mental health issues, abuse she had suffered, poverty, and addictions. Joan's father; a frequent philanderer, was in and out of her mother's and Joan's life. Both of Joan's parents had contact with the criminal justice system. Joan was exposed to extreme violence and abuse in her early life. She saw and heard her mother being raped. She saw her mother maliciously burned. She saw her mother running naked through the streets in her neighborhood. Joan's peers frequently taunted. her about her mother's behavior. Joan lived in a neighborhood plagued by violence. At ten-years-old, Joan was left alone for several weeks to care for several younger siblings, including one sibling who was developmentally disabled. Early childhood records indicated that Joan came to school without adequate clothing and was hungry. Joan was a child who should have been identified as a neglected child by the dependency system as well as a child in need of special education services due to her emotional needs, but she was not. Joan had behavior problems in school. She was excluded from school by the age of thirteen and sent to a public school that was a dumping ground for problem youth. In the opinion of a psychiatrist who evaluated Joan, she hit the women because she was angry with her mother for abandoning her. Joan herself was unaware of this connection and unable to express her anger in any other way. Ten years later, Joan would acknowledge for the first time in her life that she was repeatedly raped from the ages of six to twelve by her father's best friend. The rapes occurred with both her parents' knowledge and frequently in her parents' bed while her parents were present, a revelation which provides insight into the extent and depth of Joan's anger at thirteen.