Date
10-16-2025
Department
Rawlings School of Divinity
Degree
Doctor of Education in Christian Leadership (EdD)
Chair
Steven T. Smith
Keywords
Restorative Justice, trauma-informed, TBRI, ecosystem
Disciplines
Law
Recommended Citation
Kight, Amy, "Impact of Trauma-Informed Care on the Restorative Justice Ecosystem" (2025). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 7549.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/7549
Abstract
Created and titled as the ARTIC Project (Activating Restoration through Trauma-Informed Courts), this research addresses the gap between industrial/structural realities and relationship/nurturing realities within Substance Use Disorder (SUD) recovery and restorative justice paradigms. Grounded in Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI), the project emphasized that sustainable behavioral change requires balancing connection with correction (KPICD, 2022). Through a biblical lens, the researcher posits complete healing only comes from our Heavenly Father and occurs on an individual level. With this in mind, TBRI research affirms that organizations do not change people - people change people (KPICD, 2022). This intentional relationship between God, Creation, Others, and Self reflects Myers’ (2011) theological vision that interconnectedness sustains transformation. The collaborative partner for this study was the Enotah Accountability and Treatment Courts - along with community mental health organizations - engaging in trauma-informed training that integrated biblical principles, neuroscience, and TBRI strategies. Data collection included pre- and post-training ARTIC surveys with Likert-scale measures and qualitative responses. Findings revealed significant shifts in trauma-informed beliefs and practices. Participants moved from moderate agreement with the misconception that “trauma is an excuse for poor behavior” (M=2.8) to stronger disagreement (M= 2.0). The largest shift was rejecting the belief that trauma-informed care diminishes accountability (M decreased from 2.73 to 1.60). Additional gains appeared in recognizing disrupted attachment (M=4.87 to 5.47) and in co-regulation skills (M=3.87 to 5.20). Overall, the ARTIC Project demonstrated biblically grounded, trauma-informed interventions could transform accountability courts into environments that uphold justice while fostering restoration.
