Trauma and Dissociation in Young Offenders

Although countless studies provide evidence that many juvenile offences originate from traumatic episodes and consistently demonstrate that exposure to adverse childhood experiences is a significant risk factor for antisocial development, our understanding of the processes that lead some but not all traumatized children to become juvenile offenders is still in progress. By presenting some clinical cases regarding juvenile offenders, the author aims to illustrate how different growth paths, marked by omissive or break-in experiences, can lead to the same criminal end-point. The dissociative spectrum mechanisms, the standstill of figurative and symbolic capacity, and the lack of thought resulting from adverse experiences account for the economic and functional underpinnings that lead to juvenile delinquency. For these adolescents, criminal acting represents the ultimate means to neutralize the trauma's attractive force or to mark a boundary to the emotional void left behind by violence or an unsuccessful primary caregiving experience.