The mental health teams that worked in gathering the histories of felons to better predict and deter serious crimes often became Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) detectives. In death penalty cases, clinical social workers would interview those associated with the defendant’s life to try to determine the events that influenced the defendant’s bad decisions and bringing them to the cloth restraints and immutable fixity of the execution chair. We are aware that the more painful a person’s life experiences, the higher the likelihood that anger will arise and fuel conduct. Anger unites others at least superficially by creating a common enemy. It is false empowerment emphasizing the blame of the other, rather than all the factors that intersected at a certain place in time. In the hands of demagogues or some politicians, blame offers the instantaneous hope for change through the vanquishing of the offending minority. We do not want to blame the victims of adversity. It offers a vision of an idealized past and thus a better future based on a fictionalized return. Often forgotten is the fact that the past was instrumental in arriving at this seemingly untenable present.
ACE’s in the ‘cards’ that some are dealt with is not a new story. What is new is the ability to aggregate data related to risk factors on a large scale. ACE’s as measure hold both opportunities and risks. A good utilization of this research occurs when we use these predictive risk factor numbers to assist us in understanding how the past influences current behavior, thus enhancing our empathy. Therapists themselves use awareness of adverse events in a dialogue with their clients to increase the client’s awareness of how happenstance and choices have influenced their current predicament. For some persons telling their individual ‘creation’ story assists in the process of developing an understanding that may lead to self-forgiveness and release from the repetition of the same mistakes. Further, awareness of one’s past prologue might be the basis for early intervention and the implementation of trauma-informed schools. To this end, I assembled a panel for the upcoming annual conference of NASDTEC that is to take place in Denver in June. https://www.nasdtec.net/page/FutureEvents
Our computing power allows us to calculate aggregate risk factors with a degree of possible outcome probability based on both history and genetics. However, this number crunching and the honing of statistically based predictive models do not alone address the complexities or mitigators involved when someone with a ‘high-risk’ background overcomes these predispositions. When Adverse Child Events and other contemporary risk factor correlations become factors influencing, for example, parole or insurability we miss out on a profound understanding: the very ingredients that for some individuals led to poor decision-making, were transformative and inspirational and generated a vastly different outcome in others. Lower income and poverty generate adversity and thus these ‘algorithms’ fuel prejudice. However, there are meaningful questions to ask. What produces a winning ‘hand’ when what you were initially dealt in life was disastrous? How then is someone’s pain transformed into music or comedy versus criminality? How might these transformative processes be promoted? Let’s recognize the burn victims among us, those signed by adverse experiences in childhood and more recent losses. The salve for these injuries is restorative connections. A connection not based on the premise of us vs. them mentality. Rather on a healing relationship fueled by gratitude, an awareness of the gift of grace, and acknowledgment that only together are we able to create healing and resilient communities.