Lost Childhoods: Poverty, Trauma, and Violent Crime in the Post-Welfare Era

Lost Childhoods focuses on the life—course histories of thirty young men serving time in the Pennsylvania adult prison system for crimes they committed when they were minors. The narratives of these young men, their friends, and relatives reveal the invisible yet deep—seated connection between the childhood traumas they suffered and the violent criminal behavior they committed during adolescence. By living through domestic violence, poverty, the crack epidemic, and other circumstances, thes...