The issue of Justice is dear to my heart for several reasons. So, in light of the over-use of imprisonment in our region, amidst overburdened or slothful criminal justice systems, I question whether we are "doing justice" when we incarcerate people for what may only be their Trauma Responses.
What do I mean? Well, often a criminal investigation does not delve further than the identification of the perpetrator of an alleged and reported crime. Once that is done, if the accused has no or inadequate representation, there is little hope that the Court will ever know of the real reason behind his or her behaviour.
For example, a person who is accused of battery on another may have committed the act based on the violation the so-called victim perpetrated against him/her. Or the past trauma suffered by the accused may have led to him/her being so hypervigilant that the initial response to the victim was way out of proportion.
In any event, the absence of information presented in Court during a trial or to mitigate the sentence if convicted means that unless an incarcerated person discloses to the prison counsellor or psychologist, any treatment plan for the duration of his/her prison sentence will be wanting in that regard.
Hopefully, in the region, we can bring to the attention of all relevant stakeholders that an inquiry into a person in conflict with the law as to their history of childhood adversity is a mandatory requirement.
Research abounds in this area. One paper is "Clarifying the Link Between Childhood Abuse History and Psychopathic Traits in Adult Criminal Offenders" by Monika Dargis, Joseph Newman, and Michael Koenigs. (The link will take you to www.researchgate.net)
Essentially, they found that "Childhood abuse is a risk factor for the development of externalizing characteristics and disorders, including antisocial personality disorder and psychopathy. However, the precise relationships between particular types of childhood maltreatment and subsequent antisocial and psychopathic traits remain unclear. Using a large sample of incarcerated adult male criminal offenders (nā«½183), the current study confirmed that severity of overall childhood maltreatment was linked to severity of both psychopathy and antisocial personality disorder in adulthood. Moreover, this relationship was particularly strong for physical abuse and the antisocial facet of psychopathy. Sexual abuse history was uniquely related to juvenile conduct disorder severity, rather than adult psychopathy or antisocial behaviors. Additionally, there was a significantly stronger relationship between childhood maltreatment and juvenile conduct disorder than between childhood maltreatment and ASPD or psychopathy. These findings bolster and clarify the link between childhood maltreatment and antisocial behavior later in life."
[Read the full article on www.researchgate.net - "Clarifying the Link Between Childhood Abuse History and Psychopathic Traits in Adult Criminal Offenders".]
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