Community Crimes in Relation to Trauma in Children

We will be introducing and discussing the Lennox neighborhood and its relation to crime, trauma, and needs for support. This information is provided as a guide for JUNTOS, our collaborative community partner supporting the children of Lennox. While JUNTOS offers a hub of services to their students, this paper will offer additional resources for the partner. Efforts to bridge deficits are provided through a guiding survey, maps of the community, and infographics.

 It is important to understand the children you are working with so that you can help them understand themselves. JUNTOS mission stood out to us as they work with such a small community that faces so many challenges. We knew their mission was important and if we could offer any new resources to them, we wanted to.

By providing a map of Lennox we can help JUNTOS see what types of possible crimes their future students may be facing. The infographics can help JUNTOS representatives discover what types of trauma exist and can help support their students in identifying what they may be going through. The survey will be the concluding piece of our study. This will be useful to JUNTOS as they can offer this survey to both parents and students to help see what type of support they may be looking for.

JUNTOS, serves the small community of Lennox. The city of Lennox is near Inglewood. Lennox has a population of about 22,950 and the area consists of 1.06 mile. It also has a high density with 21,557 people per square mile. The community of mostly Latinos, which make up about 89.5 percent of the population. The median household income for the Lennox community is about $37,937, which is low for the county. The average household size is about 4.2 people and there are about 9,338 residents that are under age eighteen. The founders of the organization noticed the issues and obstacles with trauma and the consequences it can bring in the future if left untreated. They wanted to provide services and resources for students with trauma and their families, and to prevent trauma for future students.

Research Question 1: To what extent does crime relate to trauma in children?

Research Question 2: Are the characteristics associated with having trauma related to crimes at the local level?

We believe there is a direct correlation between the trauma children experience and the crimes that happen in their neighborhood. From our datasets we know that Lennox experiences high crime rates and childhood trauma. By identifying and mapping Lennox neighborhood crimes we can also identify the need for various support for the children of these neighborhoods. 

For our hypothesis, we would like to explore how trauma can be caused by the surrounding variables in the Lennox community and how crime impacts the community and how close crime is to schools in the neighborhood. The closer the crime is to schools in the neighborhood, the greater chance students are exposed to crimes and trauma. It is not helpful for students to be exposed to violence, crimes, or trauma that is close to schools, which are where most children are everyday. Children who have experienced adverse childhood experiences, or traumatic events, can affect their behavior and education. Trauma can affect their education because it is negatively associated with the development of communication and reading skills. It can affect their behavior because it negatively affects their emotional and physical safety. Essentially, trauma can lead to consequences in the future if left untreated.

Since we are looking at variables in the community that can lead to childhood trauma, we also decided to focus on the education and income levels of the area of Lennox. Financial instability can be a cause of a stressful household that can have many adverse effects on a child. Some of the issues that stem from financial instability include stressed overworked parents and food and housing insecurities. These types of trauma-related stress result in changes in brain development that can have lasting effects on a child’s cognitive growth  and academic achievement. Financial opportunity is greatly affected by the level of education that is achieved, so by looking at the relationship between the two, we can get a better understanding of how to intervene.

Trauma can affect children in both their community and household environments. The information we provided regarding the crime proximity to schools shows us the extent of how many traumatic crimes children are being exposed to in a short walking radius of their learning institution. Trauma is also exposed in households because, as our map shows, there is a connection between how the majority of families in Lennox do not have a strong educational background and also have a low household income. This is important because children in low income households are exposed to trauma regarding financial struggles. Putting into consideration these two factors shows how children living in the Lennox neighborhood are exposed to a vast number of incidents that can cause trauma.

This article reflects on toxic stress and trauma. Throughout this article Walkley discusses how trauma can affect children and the stress it has on their development and behavior. Positives of implementing trauma-informed programs and the challenges that come from this are also discussed. This article acknowledges how early prevention and interventions are essential to providing a foundation to healthy lifelong development and learning.  

I appreciate this article as it provides a physiological and emotional outlook on trauma and how it affects children. It also focuses on improving the emotional and physical safety of students while improving academic and behavioral outcomes. The research also offers a mnemonic device CAPPD, which we can use as future educators. CAPPD stands for; Calm, Attuned, Present, Predictable, and Don’t Let Children’s Emotions Escalate Your Own. Not only does this article provide for proactive work, it supports both sides of the pendulum by discussing challenges and effective strategies.

Walkley, M. & Cox T. L. (2013). Building Trauma-Informed Schools and Communities, Children & Schools, 35, 123–126, https://doi-org.mimas.calstatela.edu/10.1093/cs/cdt007

This discusses the educational effects on a child after they have experienced a traumatic event. The research focuses on the effects of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on brain functioning and the development of language skills. Children who have experienced ACEs have difficulty meeting the academic and behavioral expectations because the brain’s reaction to trauma affects the thinking, learning, and sensory processing areas of the brain. ACEs also impact the child’s language skills because of the underdeveloped communication skills and reading skills that require the coordination of multiple executive functioning skills, including attention, working memory, and self-regulation. One of the strengths of this article is that it also talks about trauma-informed practices. The practices include incorporating routines at home, consistent presence of teachers and trauma-sensitive practices, and trauma-informed teacher training. This article not only talks about the research behind the negative association between ACEs and language skills, but also the trauma-informed practices.

Segal, A. & Collin-Vezina, D. (2019). Impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences on Language Skills and Promising School Interventions. Canadian Journal of school Psychology, 34, 317-322. https://doi.org/10.1177/0829573519856818

This article explains how children in inner cities that experience more violence are more likely to be depressed and also abuse substances. It also examines a study done on childhood and adult trauma in inner city residents and the relationship it has with violence and also the different levels of trauma. This is in regards to how adults who are most exposed to childhood trauma were reported to have more violent behavior than those who did not experience it. The study results concluded that in inner-city disadvantaged neighborhoods there was a high frequency of aggression that is connected to childhood abuse. Children who experience childhood abuse are more susceptible to experience a lifetime of aggression. This article offers great insight for the JUNTOS organization because it provides a study that can help measure how childhood traumatic factors children are experiencing in their own neighborhoods can affect them. The relationship between how trauma can correlate with acts of aggression can be used to better understand the cycle of violence and consumption abuse within the Lennox community.

Walkley, M. & Cox T. L. (2013). Building Trauma-Informed Schools and Communities, Children & Schools, 35, 123–126, https://doi-org.mimas.calstatela.edu/10.1093/cs/cdt007

This focuses on explaining the barrier to learning that poverty creates and ways that educators can minimize the negative effects. The authors emphasise that if caught at an early age the results of poverty related trauma can be dealt with and treated but if not there are lasting long-term results. Children that experience these types of stress are more likely to have difficulties with attentional skills, memory, prioritizing, and self-regulating emotions. Besides giving information on the issues related to poverty and trauma the article also talks about the role of school and how to get more involved with the students dealing with those problems. The need to include a socioemotional component to learning can help to make a positive relationship between student and educator and also creates a safe atmosphere where the students are free to feel a sense of control in their lives. This article gives lots of information on not only the effects on the children living in low social economic situations but also possible ways for Juntos to better connect with them.

Izard, Ernest. Teaching Children from Poverty and Trauma. National Education Association (2016).  https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED594465.pdf 

One of the maps we have provided shows the crime surrounding Lennox neighborhood schools. The crimes shown are crimes that impact trauma in children as well as their personal development. The map is meant to provide information that can help JUNTOS visualize the amount of Narcotics, robberies, and homicide crimes surrounding Lennox schools.

The map regarding crime surrounding Lennox schools was created using Arcgis. We used layers provided by Census to create the boundaries of Lennox. Also we incorporated the information on narcotics, homicidal, and robbery crimes that have occurred in Lennox provided by the LAPD. We created a .25 mile walking radius surrounding each school in Lennox. With this we used the summarize the data tool for each crime within the schools radius. By configuring the popups to count how many of each crime has occurred we provided a summary of the amount of the different crimes that had taken place within the radius. After we found our information we created a story map within the Arcgis tools to create a clear layout of what is within the map. By separating the three crimes into three tabs we gave a recap in how many crimes have occurred in a .25 mile radius of the schools throughout Lennox neighborhoods. 

we included shows a comparison of the predominant educational achievement and median income in the Lennox area. The information shown is meant to show the interrelations of education to income and to give a better understanding of the variables in the community that can add to child trauma. Understanding the factors in the community can help identify the situations of the students and residents of Lennox.

The map looking at the relationship between median income and education in Lennox was also made using ArcGIS. Using Esri enriched layers of the Census data tracts to show both the predominant educational level and median income in areas of the US to show their relationship. Another census layer is used to get a clear boundary of the Lennox community. Using the tool to configure a personalized popup we made one for the education map to show the total population in each area above the age of 25 and also the amount of that population with less than a high school diploma. In those same pop ups, we include a pie chart that accurately divides the population older than 25 into different categories of education. For the map on the left the pop ups includes the median income for that area and for comparison the national median income. After finishing up those maps we created a story map with a sliding divider that helps for side by side comparison between the two. Including some instruction to help understand the information given within the map.

To create a survey that will help assess the needs of students for services and programs, we used Survey123 for ArcGIS. The survey can give a general background about themselves, their household, and their stress or anxiety. Since every student has their unique experiences and situations, each student has a different need for different services and programs that help or support the students and their families.

The survey was created using Survey123 for ArcGIS. For each question, we had to determine what type of design will be best for each of the questions. Examples would be the name of the student would be a single-line text, the age of the student would be numbers, and how many people in the household work would be a single choice. If you want a follow up question, we can set a rule to make the question appear when they have a certain answer. An example would be to add a follow up question after a yes or no question, so the student can elaborate on the answer if they answered yes. In general, the questions were about the student’s background, their household, and their anxiety or stress level.

The infographics we have provided are designed to support the students of JUNTOS. They are meant to help guide students and families to a better understanding of what they are facing. Although this is not a form of diagnosis, it can help get a step in the right direction as to discovering what type of services the student may need.

The provided infographics offer direct insight as to what Community Violence, Physical Abuse and Intimate Partner Violence may look like. These infographics were created on PhotoShop by our team. We offer these infographics to JUNTOS to be used at their need.