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

Lost Childhoods, by Michaela Soyer, focuses on thirty young men who are serving time in prison but were tried as adults when they were adolescents. The book discusses the connection with these men’s growing up in poverty and their criminal behavior. Throughout, she discusses the current punishment and welfare state of the United States, life-course-persistent offenders, drug addiction, and masculinity. She ends by noting current policy implications and gives guidance as to how the policies can be changed. The audience of this book is anyone who may be interested in the U.S. justice system and how inmate’s upbringing affects their criminal behavior. Not only does Soyer interview the inmates, but she interviews their family and friends to see how they are affected by the incarceration of their friend, son, or grandson. Her overall argument is that some of the adversity that children are confronted with makes it almost impossible for them to develop reasonable assumptions about violence, drug use, and criminal behavior, therefore they are more susceptible to it. …