The role of trauma-informed practices and individual factors on perceptions of safety among staff in secure juvenile detention settings

ABSTRACT

Despite an increased focus on trauma-informed care within the juvenile justice system, we still know very little about the impact of trauma on juvenile justice professionals or their perceptions of trauma-informed interventions. To fill this gap, this study used an organizational assessment to examine perceptions of trauma-informed care among juvenile professionals in a juvenile detention setting. Participants included 204 staff members in two secure juvenile detention facilities. Staff who reported greater availability of trauma-informed practices were more likely to perceive that youth and families felt safe and those who reported that the facility was taking steps to address secondary trauma were more likely to report a sense of staff safety. Regarding individual factors, only age and gender were related to perceptions of youth and family safety. Frontline staff were more likely than supervisory staff to feel they had received adequate training in trauma and had the skills necessary to deescalate youth. These findings suggest that staff are open to trauma-informed practices in juvenile detention, but a greater focus on supervisory staff is needed. Shifting from individual-level strategies to facility-level improvements could have a greater impact on enhancing staff members’ perceptions of safety, which improves their ability to care for youth.

KEYWORDS:

• Juvenile justice professionals
• trauma
• safety

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Mahtab Moaveni, Jessica Linick, Felicia McNair, and Emily Weinberger for their tireless dedication to this project, as well as Eric Whitney for his feedback on earlier drafts of this manuscript and Tomika Carter for her support. The authors also wish to thank the NYC Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) for their ongoing collaboration and partnership. The content reported herein is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of ACS or SAMHSA. A portion of these findings were presented at the 35th Annual Meeting of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies in Boston, MA, November 14-16, 2019.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The research reported in this publication was supported by the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) under Award Number SM063561 (PI: Carly Baetz).