Life Course Perspectives on Crime from a Trauma-Informed Lens
A special issue of Social Sciences (ISSN 2076-0760). This special issue belongs to the section "Crime and Justice".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2026
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Trauma-informed criminology—a perspective that centers emotional wounds at the core of criminogenic coping—is gaining momentum across criminology and sociology. Yet, this perspective still sits largely at the margins of mainstream criminological theory, often treated as a supplementary lens rather than a foundational one.
This Special Issue aims to further integrate trauma-informed thinking into core criminological frameworks, namely life course criminology. Doing so not only deepens our understanding of the root causes of crime but also highlights pathways toward emotional healing and crime reduction —outcomes that are closely intertwined from a trauma-informed standpoint.
I invite theoretical and/or empirical submissions that broadly engage with trauma, healing, and crime, including (but not limited to) the following areas:
- Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and their implications for crime and well-being across the life course;
- The relationship between post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and crime/substance use
- Complex PTSD and its relevance for criminological theory and research;
- The impact of therapeutic approaches – such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EM6DR), and progressive counting (PC) – on desistance, substance use, and emotional healing;
- Trauma-informed reinterpretations of foundational criminological theories (e.g., reframing Gottfredson and Hirschi’s General Theory of Crime through a trauma-informed lens);
- Trauma-informed practices and interventions within the criminal justice system;
- Psychedelic-assisted therapy and its implications for emotional well-being and coping.
This Special Issue welcomes contributions from scholars across disciplines, including criminology, sociology, psychology, social work, neuroscience, and related fields. All told, the overarching goal of this Special Issue is to foster interdisciplinary dialogue that brings these perspectives together into a cohesive understanding of crime, trauma, desistance, and healing.
Dr. Christopher Dennison
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- ACEs
- Crime
- trauma
- EMDR
- life course criminology
- psychedelic-assisted therapy
- substance use
- PTSD
- C-PTSD
- criminology
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