Juvenile confinement exacerbates adversity burden: A neurobiological impetus for decarceration

Every year, about 700,000 youth arrests occur in the United States, creating significant neurodevelopmental strain; this is especially concerning as most of these youth have early life adversity exposures that may alter brain development. Males, Black, and Latinx youth, and individuals from low soci...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Frontiers in neuroscience 2022-09, Vol.16, p.1004335-1004335
Main Authors: Orendain, Natalia, Galván, Adriana, Smith, Emma, Barnert, Elizabeth S., Chung, Paul J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
adolescence
Adults
adversity
Age
Arrests
Behavior
Brain research
Child development
Children & youth
Crime
Disorderly conduct
Exploratory behavior
Health care
Juvenile justice
Males
neurodevelopment
Neuroscience
Pediatrics
Post traumatic stress disorder
stress
Trauma
Traumatic brain injury
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Summary:Every year, about 700,000 youth arrests occur in the United States, creating significant neurodevelopmental strain; this is especially concerning as most of these youth have early life adversity exposures that may alter brain development. Males, Black, and Latinx youth, and individuals from low socioeconomic status households have disproportionate contact with the juvenile justice system (JJS). Youth confined in the JJS are frequently exposed to threat and abuse, in addition to separation from family and other social supports. Youths’ educational and exploratory behaviors and activities are substantially restricted, and youth are confined to sterile environments that often lack sufficient enrichment resources. In addition to their demonstrated ineffectiveness in preventing future delinquent behaviors, high recidivism rates, and costs, juvenile conditions of confinement likely exacerbate youths’ adversity burden and neurodevelopmentally harm youth during the temporally sensitive window of adolescence. Developmentally appropriate methods that capitalize on adolescents’ unique rehabilitative potential should be instated through interventions that minimize confinement. Such changes would require joint advocacy from the pediatric and behavioral health care communities. “The distinct nature of children, their initial dependent, and developmental state, their unique human potential as well as their vulnerability, all demand the need for more, rather than less, legal and other protection from all forms of violence (United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, 2007).”
ISSN:1662-453X
1662-4548
1662-453X
DOI:10.3389/fnins.2022.1004335