ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the relevance of the neuroscience of trauma in bringing social vulnerability to the fore of the sentencing process. For the purpose of the chapter, social vulnerability includes a person's chronic or repeated exposure to severe social adversity, such as extreme socio-economic deprivation, personal and institutional abuse, neglect, exposure to personal and community violence, and severe discrimination. Upon reviewing the state-of-the-art of behavioural and neuroscientific literature about the harmful and criminogenic effects of severe social adversity via the mechanisms of trauma, the chapter discusses the potential contribution of this type of evidence to informing sentencing determinations in noncapital cases, evidencing links between the crime committed and a defendant's severely adverse social exposures. In so doing, the chapter proposes avenues and reasons for recognising social vulnerability as a mitigating factor. Ultimately, the chapter aims to showcase that a sentencing system sensitive to the traumatising effects of background disadvantage is critical for identifying responses that address the individual and social needs of defendants, provide defendants with constructive opportunities for healing and rehabilitation, and promote fairness and equality.
