Female involvement in the juvenile justice system has grown disproportionately during a time when the rate of boys decline. Women of color in the child welfare system experience an array of trauma during childhood. History of childhood neglect and/or child abuse can result in the involvement with the juvenile justice system. The criminal justice system neglects to understand how childhood exposure to trauma can lead to survival behaviors and strategies that are criminalized. The child welfare system involvement can heighten trauma and result in law enforcement participation. Children consent exposure to stress and harm contribute to the development of survival technique based on evolutionary responses which include: dissociation: the process of coping with overwhelming; distrust in authority figure since preponderance of trauma is caused at the hands of authority figures, hypervigilance: constant scanning of environment for threat and exaggerated startle: the moving action …show more content…
When children experience any form of traumatic event and has the opportunity to be surrounded by nurturing and supportive adults generates a sense of assessing and treating trauma effectively. Traumatized children respond to internalized agony such as depression, anxiety or grief, systems are in place to understand what is needed to assist in their recuperation and healing process. There is a disconnect between trauma experiences and disruptive behavior disorders such as oppositional defiant disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-V) does not sufficiently capture the experiences of trauma in children. However, the diagnoses provided describe only sections of a child’s trauma experience and appearance. The issue with this is that persons diagnosis guide treatment interventions may or may not include specific treatment of a particular trauma. For example, a child diagnosed with anxiety or depression is questioned on whether depression or anxiety is aim in treatment or the trauma, which can be