ABSTRACT
The Child Development Community Policing (CD–CP) recognizes that trauma and exposure to violence disrupt the brain–mind disposition to seek and identify contingencies, coherence, and organization, a disposition from which we derive a sense of anticipation, activity, control, and agency—the agentive self. The CD–CP Program promotes mentalizing in police officers with exercises designed to appreciate the different perspectives of those involved in a violent incident—including their own. The outcome of those therapeutic interventions is suggested by moving and compelling anecdotes, yet lacks empirical evidence. It is compelling, however, to wonder whether the more fundamental question lies in the potential to develop therapeutic interventions as focused, systematic, and clearly defined as the CD—CP Program, designed to more specifically assist children exposed to violence—as well as rekindling in their families the very capacity to create mind and mindfulness.
