Children who come to the attention of the juvenile justice system are a challenging and underserved population. The National Child Traumatic Stress Network has developed resources to help juvenile justice professionals understand and provide trauma-focused services to these youth. These resources include tools and materials for building skills and increasing knowledge about childhood trauma to help judges, attorneys, law enforcement, probation officers, frontline residential staff, mental health personnel, and caregivers understand and respond to the needs of traumatized children. In addition to the NCTSN resources highlighted below, Justice System Professionals can learn more about creating trauma-informed Justice Systems in the Trauma-Informed Care section of this website.
Provides judges with useful questions and guidelines to help make decisions based on the emerging scientific findings in the traumatic stress field. These bench cards assist judges and court-appointed professionals doing mental health assessment of children.
Provides guidance to judges and attorneys on how to recognize trauma and its effects on birth parents. This fact sheet helps judges and attorneys recognize the potential impact of trauma on parenting.
Describes child and adolescent trauma exposure and psychosocial functioning among NCTSN care recipients in residential care.
Highlights what ten things juvenile court judges should know to best meet the needs of traumatized children who come into their system.
Offers some statistics about gang-involved youth and their exposure to traumatic events.
Outlines the impact of trauma on children's development, beliefs, and behaviors.
Focuses on creating a trauma-informed law enforcement system.
Summarizes findings from focus groups.
Describes the impact of domestic violence on children. This video provides law enforcement officers with concrete information about what they can do when responding to the scene of a domestic violence call.
Provides links and resources for additional information to support the Cops, KIds, and Domestic Violence training video.
Provides staff in child-serving systems with best practices for trauma screening.
Is a self-rating tool that walks users through each of the competencies in STS cross-disciplinary version.