The city of Dayton is partnering with the Greater Dayton Area Hospital Association to address the gun violence in several communities.
GDAHA will lead the Cure Violence initiative, treating violence as a public health issue. This effort is a key part of the city's Peace Campaign.
WYSO’s Kathryn Mobley spoke with Lisa Thurau, the founder of Strategies for Youth, a national policy and training organization promoting positive interactions between youth and law enforcement. Thurau and her team have worked with law enforcement agencies in the Cleveland and Columbus areas.
According to Thurau, young people between the ages of 13 to 25 tend to take risks without considering the consequences — a combination that can put them on the wrong side of the law.
This interview has been lightly interviewed for length and clarity.
Lisa Thurau: The adolescent brain is perceiving information through the most reactive, least sophisticated part of its brain, the amygdala.
And it's why this age is the age where you see young people pushing limits, testing boundaries, reacting instead of thinking, and youth at this age are going through massive brain changes, all of which are complicated by exposure to trauma, mental health issues, and living in toxic stress, such as environments where there's a lot of violence.
Kathryn Mobley: And how do these brain changes influence how some young people interact with police officers?
Thurau: Where you or I might say, 'hey, what's happening here?' You'll see a kid often say, 'what the hell?' Or run or slip away or just freeze up.
And we need officers to recognize that some of that, while unpleasant and confrontational and appearing to be disrespectful, is actually just a typical reactive set of behaviors which frankly a lot of adults model too.
"Behavior is a function of perceived options."
Mobley: Lisa, your team has worked with law enforcement officers in the Cleveland and Columbus areas. What are some of their reactions to your training?
Thurau: When we offer our trainings, like Policing the Teen Brain, we have many officers saying, oh, I get it. And some of the key things they take away from our training are, I gotta slow down. I've got to really slow down how I initiate contact, how I maintain contact, and how I perceive myself and how the youth perceives me are things I have to have in front of mine.
Mobley: Lisa, what are some key elements any kind of violence intervention program should include?
Thurau: It's incredibly important for officers to understand that kids are going to perceive and process information and react differently, especially with authority figures. This is the natural outcome of being kids. They know they don't have power. They want to have power, they wanna have independence and autonomy, and they're often not quite capable of it.
Mobley: What can families do to better prepare their young person if they do come in contact with the police officer?
Thurau: My advice is educate your kids and educate yourself. By one survey's account, 50% of parents are not able to effectively support their kids when they are questioned by police or go into the juvenile justice system. Community organizations, be they after school programs, churches, sports clubs, need to not only do this kind of education, but they need to do it with lawyers to make sure it's accurate so that questions can be answered. If these young people can't talk to anybody about being in a dangerous situation, we've failed them. And a lot of kids perceive they have no options. Behavior is a function of perceived options.
