Conclusion

Trauma does not cause crime. Many people with a history of trauma do not offend. However, trauma and crime are closely associated. Further, the criminal justice system is traumatic. A trauma-informed criminal justice system may improve the experiences of people within it by reducing the risk of additional or future traumatisation and promoting more effective strategies for community safety. This book is the first to examine how victim and defendant trauma is realised, recognised, and responded to by justice agencies and sentencing judges and how re-traumatisation can be resisted (SAMHSA, 2014). In implementing the trauma-informed framework, resisting re-traumatisation is the most important element. There are many reasons to promote compassionate justice and few reasons to maintain the status quo. Humanising people in the criminal justice system is imperative if we are to achieve the criminal justice system's goal of community safety. Repeated punishment and incarceration will not achieve community safety. Crime can only be addressed through connections between people and the community within which we all live.