PEORIA, Ill. – A Peoria-area therapist is suggesting a compassionate approach to solving the area’s youth crime problem.
Peoria Police Chief Eric Echevarria spoke out after three teenagers were arrested after the shooting of a man on a bicycle Sunday afternoon in South Peoria. The man, 22-year-old Khmari Rickmon, passed away on Tuesday.
Echevarria says the three teenagers arrested were arrested 27 times prior, which led him to call for reforms to the juvenile detention system, and say Peoria has a “parenting problem.”
Lauren Auer is a Bradley University criminal justice graduate who interned at the Peoria County Juvenile Detention Center, and specializes in trauma counseling, who runs her own practice in Peoria.
Auer tells WMBD’s “The Phil Luciano Show” that traumas can cause biological chemical changes in a person’s mind.
“All these adverse experiences from a young age, and that includes things like poverty, that changes your ability to make good decisions,” Auer said.
Auer cites the CDC-Kaiser ACE study that found children who experience adverse traumas are more likely to experience mental illness, violence, incarceration, substance abuse, and even early death.
In addition, Auer says traumas can be experienced by parents and teachers of children, as well as officers who are arresting juvenile offenders. She says traumas can also be experienced by communities where violence is prevalent.
Auer does not believe that charging juveniles as adults is helpful, and says those juveniles are more likely to reoffend later in life. She says that’s due to not having programs available to treat traumas that led to incarceration.
Auer believes early intervention can be the most effective way to help juveniles overcome traumas, and getting help from local organizations can help. But she notes that in some cases, organizations can lack the funding and staff needed to properly handle the number of juveniles who are in need of care.
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