Home

Trauma-Informed Care For Women

This post is derived from the following peer-reviewed work: Miller, N., and L. Najavits. (2012). Creating trauma-informed correctional care: A balance of goals and environment. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 3, DOI: 10.3402/ejpt.v3i0.17246.

Research Summary: Miller and Najavits note that “rates of posttraumatic stress disorder and exposure to violence among incarcerated males and females in the US are exponentially higher than rates among the general population; yet, abrupt detoxification from substances, the pervasive authoritative presence and sensory and environmental trauma triggers can pose a threat to individual and institutional stability during incarceration” (2012). As such, Miller and Najavits explored the challenges and potential benefits of trauma-informed correctional care to suggest strategies for administrative support, correctional staff development and educational opportunities, and institutional stability. This team found that trauma-informed correctional care demonstrated promise in “increasing offender responsivity to evidence-based cognitive behavioral programming that reduced criminal risk factors and in supporting integrated programming for offenders with substance abuse and co-occurring disorders” (2012).

Assessment of Findings: The work by Miller and Najavits accurately highlighted the trauma that is experienced by many prisoners before and during incarceration. Their work is a particularly interesting framework in which to examine the trauma experienced by women before and during their incarceration. For instance, many women are a witness to violence, experience sexual abuse (either as a child, adult, or both), and/or intimate partner violence. These experiences may help to pave the road to engaging in criminal behavior by increasing their risk to engage in violent behavior, use illicit substances, and/or engage in petty criminal activity to support themselves in the absence of being able to maintain a 9-5 job.

Once incarcerated, women may be especially susceptible to continuing to experience psychological distress  and trauma by fellow inmates, harsh corrections staff, and their withdrawal from substances. For instance, women that have experienced intimate partner violence where they felt that the partner was dominant may have ongoing psychological distress from the corrections and guard staff that are not trained in trauma-informed care and can’t recognize that their tactics may exacerbate many problems for inmates. Take a look at the following video from the New York Times (in partnership with Netflix) which shows much of the trauma that women experience in jail...focusing on the first few days and weeks. (If the URL doesn't work or the video doesn't play, it may be accessed here: https://paidpost.nytimes.com/netflix/women-inmates-separate-but-not-equal.html).

The video does a great job of detailing the issues specific to women in prison. For instance, the trauma that they may experience by being removed from their families—especially young families—may compound experiences that they had prior to entering the criminal justice system. So, what can be done? Well, the first thing that must be addressed is training. Corrections staff must be able to identify when trauma-informed corrections care is needed. Even when not explicitly reported by an inmate, staff may be able to pick up on makers of trauma during the intake process or through daily routines. Once the need for care is identified, these women should receive counseling, any necessary medications, and they should be cared for by corrections staff of the same gender that have some training in crisis intervention and, of course, trauma informed care. Lastly, these women should receive some additional support to help ensure that their family life can be maintained through augmented visits or access to phone calls on a more frequent basis. Ideally, when these women leave the criminal justice system, they will have been able to address their trauma issues and their rehabilitation will decrease recidivism.

Correctional Officers Stress

During week four, I expressed on a unique and personal story I had about an old friend of mine who work as a juvenile dentition officer. To summarize the story, while working as a juvenile correctional officer he encountered a 15-year-old detainee who had severe mental problems. On one occasion, this detainee decides to place his own fecal matter on himself; to prevent the detention officers from grabbing him and help him in any form from what he was about to do next. From there the young man attempted to hang himself. Afterward, officers rushed in the effort to prevent the suicide attempt. At first officers were hesitant in the efforts to assist the detainee, due to his smearing of the fecal matter on himself. But, due to the professionalism of these officers, they were able to overcome this hesitation and prevent the detainee from committing suicide. A few weeks after this transaction the individual turned in his resignation letter, stating the occupational strain were just too much to overcome.

This story got me thinking about the possible occupational strains correctional officers must face. Regrettably, I don’t have any firsthand knowledge on the matter, thus I did some research on possible correctional stressors. So, I would like to just talk about the possible occupational strains many of our correctional officers may face.

Correctional officers are faced with several occupational risk factors, since they house a population of inmates with the task of providing public safety and encouraging offender rehabilitation. Long term occupational stressors may lead an individual towards the feelings of being burnout. In turn, the employee will feel a sense of decreased organizational commitment and lower association towards productivity. For example, it is estimated that 37% of correctional officer’s experience some sort of work-related strain leading towards exhaustion; compared towards the 19% to 30% within the general working population. (Finney, Stergioupoulos, Hensel, Baonoto, & Dewa. 2013)

So, what are the causes of the emotional work-related strain? The three occupational tensioners are: organizational stressors, vocational stressors, and exterior system stressors. (Finn, Pg12-16. 2000) First, organizational sources relate towards overcrowded facilities, understaffing, and supervisory demands. (Finn, Pg12-13. 2000) From 1990 to 1995, the ratio between correctional officer towards inmate population rose from 4.2 to 4.6. (Finn, Pg12. 2000) Within the same time frame the nation’s correctional officer population only increased by a total of 14%. (Finn, Pg12. 2000) Forcing many facilities to enforce mandatory overtime for officer and unpredictable rotational shifts as well. (Pittaro, 2015) This lead many officers to the emotional clash of role uncertainty and confliction. (Finn, Pg13. 2000)

Second, the vocational source of stress relates towards threat and/or action of inmate violence, prisoner demands and manipulation, and problems with coworkers. (Finn, Pg13-14. 2000) As a result of the criminal subculture the concentration of prison gangs has increased. (Finn, Pg12. 2000) Therefore, it is only natural that the number of altercation between inmates and correctional officer increase per year within the State and Federal prison system. (Finn, Pg12. 2000) To illustrate, between 1990 and 1995, the number of prison attack on correctional officers increased by nearly one-third. (Finn, Pg12. 2000) Per one superintendent, the prison gang population is not afraid of assaulting staff members today; they don’t mine if they end up in segregation. (Finn, Pg12. 2000) Reason being, many of inmates are already serving an extended prison sentence, so they don’t fear any additional punishments. (Finn, Pg12. 2000)

Finally, exterior sources of stressors refer towards poor public image and poor pay. (Finn, Pg15-16. 2000) Per the U.S. Bureau of Labor, the range salary for a correctional officer in 2011 was in between $27,000 to $69,610, with an average annual salary of $43,550. Unfortunately, due to the political pressure many municipalities are facing, many of them are cutting their annual correctional budge spending per year. Meaning the average annual salary for a correctional officer will not be moving up any time soon. And according towards the U.S. Bureau of Labor, its estimated that by the year 2020 an additional 26,000 correctional officers will be needed.

Peter Finn wrote a book titled: Addressing Correctional Officer Stress: Programs and Strategies. Finn details the importance of stress reliving program within the Counties, States, or Federal correctional system. Within the book he elaborates on my key states and their programs. For example, Rhode Island family service society, California counseling team, Massachusetts stress unit, Oregon peer support program, and Texas post trauma staff support program. (Finn, Pg20. 2000) Finn also stresses the secondary aspect these stress reliving programs have on the overall system. For instance, they release some of the financial burden many of the municipalities carry over sick time leave abuse, high turnover rates, and union relations. (Finn, Pg6-7. 2000)

References

1. Finney C, Stergioupoulos E, Hensel J, Baonato S, & Dewa C. (January, 2013). Organizational Stressors Associated with Job Stress and Burnout in Correctional Officers: A Systematic Review. Copyright: BioMed Central LTB.

http://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2458-13-82

2. Finn, P. (December 2000). Addressing Correctional Officer Stress: Programs and Strategies. Copyright: U.S. Department of Justice: National Institution of Justice.

https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/183474.pdf

3. Pittar, M. (2015). Stress Management Strategies for Correctional Officers. Copyright: In Public Safety.

http://inpublicsafety.com/2015/01/stress-management-strategies-for-correctional-officers/

Female Juvenile: A Special Group of Individuals

Female youth are a special group of individuals with special needs. The author of "Private Pain and Public Behavior", Robin A. Robinson, proposes that a closer look into how a female delinquent defines their action will reveal a different type trauma that should be addressed. She proposes the current juvenile justice system functions under the mentality that juvenile offenders need to be controlled and reformed while females warrant a different response, especially by the court. Robinson (2000) argues that "girls had gained the offender label based on unlawful actions, effectively relegating to lesser important other experiences and moments" (p.79). During her research, Robison found their behavior to be a dominant theme of the effects of physical and sexual abuse. Many were abused by close family members of whom they trusted. "Girls faced with such personal and family characteristics may act in ways that hurt mostly themselves, such as sexually acting out, drug and alcohol use and other potential self-destructive actions including suicide attempts, running away, truancy and law breaking (p.78). This special group of females require services aimed at building them up in opposed to policy that further labels the youth causing them to feel helpless and alone as if no one cares.

The majority of girls from Robinsons' study were not comfortable with telling people about the abuse. They felt a sense of guilt and shame, often blaming themselves for the actions of others. Robinson associates this with a struggle of one of two kinds of powerlessness, true powerlessness and intermediate powerlessness. "True powerlessness,  including behavioral manifestations over which the girl has no control or ability to change and intermediate powerlessness which exist in temporary situations that the girl can change once she escapes the abusive situation or makes a decision to act in some way that makes sense to her given her life circumstances" (p.82). With limited choices, the only action that gave them a sense of relief were those that were no appropriate for female minors. Once caught in the system, they are further labeled in a way that places the blame solely on the individual, therefore becoming a losing situation.

When addressing female delinquency, I think it is in the best interest of the juvenile to try to better understand what causes female youth to engage in deviant behavior. Robinson (2000), suggest "the secrecy of abuse feeds the effects of the abuse, encouraging self-stigmatization" (p.91). Such experiences that cause trauma early on warrants access to a specialist trained in the area of female sexual abuse or, at the least female delinquency as it is such a unique phenomenon that requires special attention.

Reference

Robinson, R. "Private Pain and Public Behaviors: Sexual Abuse and Delinquent Girls". Juvenile Delinquency: A Justice Perspective, 4^th Ed, 2000, pp. 77-94.

The role of trauma in a relationship between the psychopath and the victim

The environment in which a child is raised play a big role in the creation of a psychopath as well as the victim. According to research, there is always a disconnection or some form of abuse or neglect from parents in the childhood of a psychopath as well as victims of psychopaths who are most likely to be an empath. ‘Primary psychopathic traits in men related to controlling mothers and avoidant attachment’ (Blanchard & Lyons, 2016).

What attracts the psychopath to the empath is the sweet, kind and full of life and willingness to give qualities of an empath in which none of these traits exist in a psychopath.

The psychopath’s way of dealing with their childhood trauma is to suck the life from others because they themselves feel hollow inside. On the reverse, empaths seek out to give love in order to feel worthy of being loved back, and again this traces back to their childhood.

In the book ‘Snakes in Suits-When Psychopaths go to work’ by Robert Hare, Hare mentions the technique in which psychopaths use to manipulate their victims in Chapter 3 and 4.

Hare and Babiak describe the three-phase process of the psychopath in their game of manipulation in which they do it in a very natural and instinctively manner, making them the best liar of all. Psychopaths are addicted to draining energy out of their victims to feel good about themselves, however, the worst of all victims are the spouse or those in a relationship with the psychopath.

Phase 1: The psychopaths would scout for the perfect victim in which they would test their targets for their vulnerability and weaknesses, such as telling a sad story about their lives and observe the target’s response. If the target sympathizes with them, they will continue to evaluation process until they’ve chosen that this is the right target for now.

Phase 2: Once the target has become a potential victim, the psychopath begins to earn their trust through a constant feeding of ‘carefully crafted messages, while constantly using feedback from them to build and maintain control.’ (Anderson, 2006) But in a romantic relationship, the psychopath would use the technique of ‘love-bombing’ as well as earning trust from the potential victim.

Third Phase: This is called ‘the discarding phase’, it is when the psychopath is bored and done with the victim. But as psycopaths are addicted to a constant feed of self-worth and grandiousity, they make sure that they can always go back to their victims so they use a technique called ‘trauma-bond’. Similar to Stockholm Syndrome, a state in which the captive developes a bond with the captivator as a survival strategy during their captivity, the victim in a relationship with a psychopath develops a trauma-bond manipulated by the psychopath. This is achieved by giving attention and love to the victim for a period of days and then disapppear, and when they return they would have an excuse that they use with all their victims (usually vaugue and avoids answering the question in a highly skilled way) or otherwise they would ‘gas-light’ the victim into believe it is the victim’s fault that caused them to disappear. This is a cycle, and the psychopath would gradually increase the amount of days they neglect the victim, making the victim confused, feeling worthless and blaming themselves and awaits the return. In the meantime, the psychopath is already looking around for a new target and once they have found a target that could replace the current, they would just discard the current victim with no explanations.

So how does the victim who have just been discarded from a psychopath cope? It is a very painful and difficult process that requires time for them to really heal and not to jump into a new relationship which can possibly be with either a narcisssist, a psychopath or a sociopath.

Some of the ways in which the victims can heal are;

• Giving self-love as this is very important in the recovery. It is necessary for the victim to feel worthy by themselves without the need for justification from others and especially from the psychopath.
• No contact with the psychopath, if possible change phone number and block the person from all the social network platforms.
• Find hobbies and making new and healthy relationships with others, such as joining support group.

If you are interested in this subject here are some of the books and video links I recommend:

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3EAh7-bXjk  (Jenna Stauffer and Sandra L. Brown on Psychopathy and Pathological Love Relationships)
2. ''Snakes in Suits' : When Psychopaths Go To Work', Robert D. Hare & Paul Babiak ( Book, also available as audio book)

References:

1.              Anderson, D. (2006, june 18). How psychopaths manipulate their victims. Retrieved from lovefraud.com: https://lovefraud.com/how-psychopaths-manipulate-their-victims/
2.              Bartol, C. &. (2016). Criminal Behavior 'A Psychological Approach' (11th ed.). (11th ed.). Boston: Pearson
3.              Blanchard, A., & Lyons, M. (2016, Jan). Sex differences between primary and secondary psychopathy, parental bonding, and attachment style. PsycARTICLE, 10 (1), 56-63. Google Scholar.

Burnout and Secondary Trauma among Professionals Working with Children who are Victims of Abuse

A question I want to explore is how a work environment can be structured to minimize the risks of burnout and secondary trauma for professionals who work with children who have been abused. Professionals who are working with child victims of abuse are especially susceptible to secondary trauma and burnout (Salloum, 2015). Secondary trauma is when symptoms that are nearly identical to PTSD are experienced by professionals who are working closely with survivors of trauma (Severson, 2013). One common and false myth about secondary trauma is that it can occur from witnessing an event like a terrorist attack on the news. When incidents similar to this are referred to as ‘secondary trauma’ by some individuals it can de-legitimize the very real symptoms that many forensic psychologists, and others working in the criminal justice field face. Secondary trauma for these professionals is often overlooked and my hope is to propose ideas that could prioritize mental health and aid in preventing the effects of burnout and vicarious trauma among professionals.

An interesting fact that I discovered while researching secondary trauma among professionals who work with survivors of trauma is that the levels of stress, vicarious trauma, and burnout are disputed because various studies have provided completely different results. Some results say that secondary trauma occurs frequently for forensic psychologists who work with sex offenders, or abused children, while others report a positive experience for the same jobs (Franklin, 2013). Future research questions could ask whether secondary trauma and burnout correspond with more than the traumatic events alone, and if the broader work environment and self-care approaches leave a significant impact. Specifically, I want to ask whether burnout is an end result of long time exposure to secondary trauma or if secondary trauma is more common among forensic psychologists who are already experiencing burnout.  One limitation to this question is that burnout and secondary trauma are only recently researched topics in criminal justice careers and it might be difficult to differentiate the two since they often occur simultaneously.

Research has indicated that negative experiences from a job may be related to the organization and administration, rather than the aspects of the job that deal with victims or dangerous situations (Perron, 2006). One quote that I want to share comes from a study of the effects of secondary trauma on parole officers for sex offenders:

“The officers consistently indicated that they felt little departmental support in general, “And ugh, dealing with all of that [sex offenders] . . . . the department says they have help for us, but they really do not.” Some officers described negative experiences with departmental supports.”

- Parole Officers’ Experiences of the Symptoms of Secondary Trauma in the Supervision of Sex Offenders, Margaret Severson and Carrie Pettus-Davis

This quote may indicate evidence for the ideas expressed by (Perron, 2006) that burnout and secondary trauma may be preventable by actions taken by the departments and broader workplace.

Many professionals who work with trauma change careers to work in a lower stress environment. Staff turnover rate is especially high for those working with children who are victims of abuse (Salloum, 2015). If there were resources available for approaches to self-care in the workplace, there could also be more experienced and happy professionals helping to keep our communities safer. Some possible solutions to self-care that could prevent burnout could include physical activities, training sessions, group sessions to discuss feelings of secondary trauma and burnout, and empathetic supervisors who are willing to listen to and provide support for professionals working with victims of trauma. One frequent example is free group yoga classes, which is common in law firms, which is another example of a high stress job that can quickly lead to burnout. While suggestions such as group yoga classes and training sessions might be helpful and beneficial, there are also limitations to these approaches when it comes to funding.

An improved understanding of the mental health needs of professionals working with children who are survivors of trauma and an increased emphasis on approaches to self-care in the workplace will benefit more than just the individuals performing this work. This deeper understanding and improvement in approached to secondary trauma and burnout will make professionals better equipped for their difficult jobs, which means they will have better outcomes and will leave a lasting positive impact on the broader community as a result.

References:

Perron, B., & Hiltz, B. (2006). Burnout and Secondary Trauma Among Forensic Interviewers of Abused Children. Child & Adolescent Social Work Journal, 23(2), 216-234.

Salloum, Kondrat, Johnco, & Olson. (2015). The role of self-care on compassion satisfaction, burnout and secondary trauma among child welfare workers. Children and Youth Services Review, 49, 54-61.

Severson, M., & Pettus-Davis, C. (2013). Parole Officers’ Experiences of the Symptoms of Secondary Trauma in the Supervision of Sex Offenders. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 57(1), 5-24.

Trauma-Informed Criminal Justice Professionals

Within our criminal justice system, many individuals both victims and perpetrators have experienced some degree of trauma in their lives. Research reveals that both men and women report a history of traumatic experience prior to an incarceration. Furthermore, incarceration itself if viewed by some as a traumatic experience for the men, women, and juveniles who are incarcerated for breaking society's laws. With this being the case, there has been a recent push for criminal justice professionals to understand the effects of trauma, its signs and symptoms, and how to provide support, rehabilitation, and closure to an individual who has experienced trauma in their life. Being 'trauma-informed' is one way that criminal justice professionals aim to help those who have been impacted by trauma or traumatic events throughout their life.
When criminal justice professionals are trauma-informed, they learn how to interact with individuals who have experienced trauma while being able to protect themselves from danger/harm that the individual who has experienced trauma may try to inflict as a defense mechanism. Criminal justice professionals are then able to better deal with at-risk populations and recognize what trauma looks like. For example, some types of trauma include:

- Sexual Abuse
- Physical Abuse
- Witnessing a Natural Disaster
- Serving in Combat or Being a Victim of Way
- Repeated Abuse as a Child
- Witnessing a Brutal Shooting

All of the above noted stressors that lead to trauma can impact how an individual views the world and molds their intent, trust, and relationships with others as well as criminal justice professionals. If our criminal justice system becomes more trauma-informed, we may be better equipped to address the needs to an individual who has experienced trauma and understand the root of their behaviors, criminal and noncriminal.

Toward Creating a Trauma-Informed Criminal Justice System. (2012, June 06). Retrieved June 19, 2017, from https://www.prainc.com/creating-a-trauma-informed-criminal-justice-system/

Self Care

Self-care particularly in the wake of trauma is extremely important. Individuals working in the criminal justice field can experience stress, burnout, and fatigue. Compassion fatigue, which is also referred to as secondary traumatic stress or vicarious traumatization, is common among this group as well. Compassion fatigue is the traumatization that results from individuals who work closely with traumatized individuals on a regular basis. The effects of compassion fatigue can be detrimental to an individual on many levels. According to the International Journal of Emergency Mental Health and Human Resilience, “CF can lead to burn out, which is associated with serious mental health conditions such as PTSD and depression as well as failure to perform as expected on the job.”

Due to the fact that the nature of jobs in this field result in stress, trauma, and fatigue, it is important to focus on taking care of one’s self on a regular basis. There are many different approaches to self-care, and different individuals may respond better to different types of approaches. These can include physical activity, yoga, cooking, eating healthy, going to church, playing with a puppy, etc.

One approach that I touched briefly on in my personalized approaches to self-care discussion post is laughter. While this may seem miniscule, the effects of laughter are great. Laughter can decrease stress hormones such as cortisol and increase the production of dopamine. There are many ways to experience laughter, such as going to a comedy show, reading a funny book, or engaging with friends who induce laughter. As I discussed in reference to my own approach, I like to read books written by comedians. While they may be somewhat “trashy” and definitely not the most intellectually challenging, they are great for provoking laughter and reducing stress.

References:

Andersen, J. P., & Papazoglou, K. (n.d.). Compassion Fatigue and Compassion Satisfaction among Police Officers: An Understudied Topic. Retrieved from https://www.omicsonline.com/open-access/compassion-fatigue-and-compassion-satisfaction-among-police-officers-an-understudied-topic-1522-4821-1000259.php?aid=61170

Babbel, S. (2012, July 04). Compassion Fatigue. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/somatic-psychology/201207/compassion-fatigue

Heid, M. (2014, November 19). Laughing: You Asked Does Laughter Have Real Health Benefits? Retrieved from http://time.com/3592134/laughing-health-benefits/

Stress Management. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.helpguide.org/articles/stress/stress-management.htm