America's Child Soldiers: Gang Violence, Trafficking, & Trauma

Gang-involved youth in the US have been likened to “America’s child soldiers”, particularly in regard to their exposure to trauma. Involvement in armed groups, from revolutionary movements to gangs, is a major contributor to children’s experience of trauma and concomitant psychological sequelae. Although in some situations children are forcibly recruited into armed groups, in many contexts recruitment processes and reasons for joining are complex and involve a degree of choice and social agency. This webinar will explore the conditions that contribute to youth affiliation with armed groups, including racialized structural and economic violence, individual and community traumatization, and high-risk behavioral adaptations to chronic violence. Findings of research with gang-involved youth and anecdotal evidence will be used to elucidate the pathway by which American children may join armed groups and the traumatic effects of gang involvement. Parallels between gang-involved youth in the U.S. and child soldiers in other countries, as well as U.S. youth who have been trafficked in other contexts, will be discussed. Current promising approaches to trauma-informed intervention with this population will be described and recommendations for intervention, research, and system reform will be made.