As research emerges about the impact of trauma on a child’s developing brain, state leaders are grappling with the thorny problem of how to balance science with justice when dealing with violent and criminal teens.

The development issues are commonly referred to as “adverse childhood experiences” – and they impact just about every public entity that encounters children – from public schools to the Department of Children’s Services to hospitals and the criminal justice system. Lawmakers this year agreed to invest $1.4 million to tackle the matter, with an open invitation to nonprofits and others to come forward with their own ideas on how to address the consequences of trauma.

Advocates for children caught up in the justice system, including juvenile judges, attorneys and child-welfare advocates, hope the state will go even further – but face an uphill challenge in advocating for the least sympathetic of the state’s children: those who have committed heinous and violent crimes.

There are 183 people serving life sentences in Tennessee prisons for crimes committed while they were teens. A life sentence in Tennessee carries an automatic 51 years before any possibility of parole.

[For more of this story, written by Anita Wadhwani, go to http://www.tennessean.com/stor...lent-teens/88204522/]