What is Trauma?

A system that provides inadequate resources and support for individuals can also cause trauma. For example, poverty is often seen as a root cause of many traumatic life experiences and adversity. Poverty stems from larger economic and political systems. When trauma is understood as a broader failure of a system, then we must implement larger structural changes.

Trauma within systems can have long-term impact on survivors. For example, people of color who experience systemic oppression may be reluctant to seek services or care from the systems that have caused past harm. When patterns of trauma are embedded within several systems, one may refer to this as a traumagenic society. That means that a society's policies, practices, and beliefs traumatize specific groups of people, for example on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, etc. This can impact the physical and mental health, economic status, and well-being of entire groups. When this happens, membership in the group itself can come to predict a lack of well-being.

Trauma-informed, or trauma-responsive systems, are ones that address the needs of trauma survivors through a deep understanding of how to recognize trauma and provide evidence-based/evidence-informed trauma treatment. Exposure to trauma and lack of treatment disproportionately impacts communities of color and those living in chronic poverty. There is a tremendous need in the field to increase access and racial equity in trauma treatment, shift systems such as the justice system to become trauma-informed, and address the root causes of violence and other traumatic events.

The justice system is an example of a system that creates additional trauma for those who encounter it. Crime survivors are can be traumatized by an alienating and confusing legal process because they are blamed for their own victimization (women raped for wearing short skirts, black boys murdered for looking “scary”). Formerly incarcerated people return to the community traumatized by months, years, or decades living in a violent, terrifying, isolating, and degrading prison. The families of the incarcerated experience their own unique trauma as they are cut off from parents or other loved ones. Families can face stigma or may even lose jobs, friends, or family members as a result. Police officers, corrections officers, jurors, judges, and witnesses experience trauma. They encounter a steady stream of violence and pain. Police and corrections officers live in a constant state of fear for their lives. As with other trauma survivors, these experiences may manifest as aggression or other damaging behavior that feeds right back into the cycle of police and community violence.