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Stay up to date with news about Wendy B. Smith—explore her interviews, awards, podcast appearances, and featured articles all in one place.
ARTICLE: PSYCHOLOGY TODAY – THE LIST OF ACES SHOULD BE LONGER
DECEMBER 3, 2025 – WENDY B. SMITH, Ph.D., LCSW
ACE screenings are now widely used in health and mental health settings, providing short cuts to a sketch of events in an individual’s childhood that might have implications for current health or mental health problems. However, family circumstances and events are not the only sources of severe stress in the lives of children. A broader conceptual framework of situations and occurrences that can have traumatic impact offers a more dimensional and therefore more useful understanding of the early experiences of people we seek to help. It may also point the way to potential policy solutions when societal structures or conditions are creating trauma.
ARTICLE: SOCIAL IMPACT AUTHORS: HOW & WHY AUTHOR WENDY SMITH IS HELPING TO CHANGE OUR WORLD
OCTOBER 27, 2025 – AUTHORITY MAGAZINE EDITORIAL STAFF | HOSTED ON MEDIUM
As part of my series about “authors who are making an important social impact”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Wendy Smith. Wendy Smith, Ph.D., LCSW, is a retired clinical professor of social work and associate dean of curriculum development and assessment at the University of Southern California Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, where she taught courses on child and adolescent development. She is a licensed clinical social worker who maintained a private practice in psychotherapy in Los Angeles for 35 years, specializing in the treatment of individuals, couples, and survivors of childhood maltreatment.
ARTICLE: DR. WENDY SMITH: THE VOICE FOR THE UNHEARD
OCTOBER 25, 2025 – IMPAAKT STAFF
When society talks about crime, especially among youth, the conversation often begins with punishment and ends with statistics. Rarely do we pause to ask the harder, more human question: what kind of childhood leads a teenager to such despair, anger, or violence? For over three decades, Dr. Wendy Smith, Ph.D., LCSW, has dedicated her career to answering that very question—not with judgment, but with compassion, science, and a relentless drive for justice.
ARTICLE: THE HIDDEN DAMAGE OF FAMILY SEPARATION
OCTOBER 21, 2025 – WENDY B. SMITH, Ph.D., LCSW
The separation of young children from their parents happens for many reasons, including death, divorce, incarceration, natural disasters, and immigration policy. The circumstances that disrupt or sever the attachment may differ, but the potential for lasting wounds is almost always present. As a society, we underestimate the way disrupted attachments can undermine a child’s sense of self and affect their future relationships.
ARTICLE: PSYCHOLOGY TODAY – THE INCALCULABLE WEIGHT OF CHILDHOOD SEXUAL ABUSE
OCTOBER 21, 2025 – WENDY B. SMITH, Ph.D., LCSW
Sexual abuse experienced in childhood is not always consciously remembered by the child, but like uranium, it lives forever. It is a subject of great interest, yet as we see in the Menendez and Epstein cases, one that is extremely difficult to talk about. The searing realities of its victims’ experiences are pushed off center stage, referred to in general, but rarely centered in the public or legal discourse.
ARTICLE: NEW YORK WEEKLY – BEFORE THEIR CRIMES: WHAT WE’RE MISUNDERSTANDING ABOUT CHILDHOOD TRAUMA, YOUTH CRIME, AND THE PATH TO HEALING
SEPTEMBER 16, 2025 – WENDY SMITH, Ph.D., LCSW
I was part of a volunteer group of advocates, lawyers, and law students who traveled to California prisons to provide workshops on SB260, a groundbreaking state law passed in 2014 that established a new parole process for individuals whose crimes took place when they were under 18 years old.
ARTICLE: THE HIDDEN DAMAGE OF FAMILY SEPARATION
SEPTEMBER 15, 2025 – WENDY B. SMITH
The separation of young children from their parents happens for many reasons, including death, divorce, incarceration, natural disasters, and immigration policy. The circumstances that disrupt or sever the attachment may differ, but the potential for lasting wounds is almost always present. As a society, we underestimate the way disrupted attachments can undermine a child’s sense of self and affect their future relationships.
ARTICLE: THE LINK BETWEEN ADVERSE CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCES AND CRIME
SEPTEMBER 4, 2025 – WENDY B. SMITH
On Aug. 29, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced that he had commuted the sentences of five people serving life without parole for murder. The oldest of them was 28 at the time of his crime, and the others were 18, 21, 23, and 25. In California, that puts the younger four of them in the category of youthful offenders, distinguished from adults by not yet having reached full development of key areas of the brain.
ARTICLE: WHAT HAPPENS TO THE MENENDEZ BROTHERS NOW?
AUGUST 26, 2025 – WENDY B. SMITH
On August 21st and 22nd, Erik and Lyle Menendez were denied parole. The hopes of the two brothers and the family, friends, and advocates who had been working on their behalf were dashed. As I learned from interviewing former youth offenders convicted of murder and other violent crimes for my forthcoming book, Before Their Crimes: What We’re Misunderstanding About Childhood Trauma, Youth Crime, and the Path to Healing, the important question is, what do they do now?
PODCAST: THE KIM PAGANO SHOW – AUGUST 23, 2025
AUGUST 23, 2025 – KIM PAGANO AND GUEST WENDY B. SMITH
This podcast discusses Dr. Smith’s latest book that will be available this fall – “Before Their Crimes: What We’re Misunderstanding About Childhood Trauma, Youth Crime, and the Path to Healing”, which delves into the misunderstandings about childhood trauma and what is necessary to heal.
ARTICLE: THE MENENDEZ BROTHERS: A PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE ON CRIME
AUGUST 19, 2025 – WENDY B. SMITH
I have spent the past five years writing “Before Their Crimes: What We’re Misunderstanding About Childhood Trauma, Youth Crime, and the Path to Healing,” forthcoming in November. Though many people believe that the Menendez brothers killed their parents for the money, my experience interviewing former juvenile offenders taught me that what drives a young person to kill someone they know viciously always involves something deeper, even when money is in the picture.
ARTICLE: ARE THE MENENDEZ BROTHERS READY FOR PAROLE?
AUGUST 19, 2025 – WENDY B. SMITH
The Menendez brothers, who have served over 35 years for the murder of their parents, were resentenced and are now eligible for parole. The hearings will take place on August 21 and 22.
PODCAST: THE CHRIS VOSS SHOW PODCAST – BEFORE THEIR CRIMES: WHAT WE’RE MISUNDERSTANDING ABOUT CHILDHOOD TRAUMA, YOUTH CRIME AND THE PATH TO HEALING BY WENDY SMITH
AUGUST 12, 2025 – CHRIS VOSS AND GUEST WENDY B. SMITH
This podcast discusses Before Their Crimes: What We’re Misunderstanding about Childhood Trauma, Youth Crime, and the Path to Healing, a ground-breaking book that sheds new light on the relationship of childhood trauma and juvenile crime.
PODCAST: THE GOOD RADIO NETWORK – BEOFRE THEY WERE CRIMINALS – CHILDREN WHO COMMIT VIOLENT CRIMES
JULY 13, 2025 – FRANKIE PICASSO AND GUEST WENDY B. SMITH
Frankie Picasso and her guest, Dr. Smith, a renowned expert in child and adolescent development and the author of Before Their Crimes: What We’re Misunderstanding About Childhood Trauma, Youth Crime, and the Path to Healing, joins Frankie for an eye-opening conversation about children who commit heinous crimes and how they arrive at that juncture in their lives.
ARTICLE: DO THE MENENDEZ BROTHERS DESERVE RE-SENTENCING
MAY 8, 2025 – WENDY B. SMITH
This article explains why advances in understanding of childhood trauma and brain development, as well as changes in sentencing for people who commit crimes as teens, support a resentencing hearing for Lyle and Eric Menendez.
ARTICLE: DOES STRESS MAKE US STRONGER? – IMPAAKT MAGAZINE
MARCH 18, 2025 – HITESH DHAMANI
This article describes the three levels of stress that affect us all, and how our built-in emergency response system reacts when we feel a threat. It explains how stress can compromise our health and how it can promote growth.
ARTICLE: COMPASSION FOR TEENS WHO COMMIT VIOLDENT CRIMES? – IMPAAKT MAGAZINE
APRIL 1, 2024 – IMPAAKT STAFF
Should we have compassion for teenagers who commit murder or other violent crimes? A resounding “yes” is Dr. Wendy Smith’s response to this challenging question. She’s spent much of her professional career advocating for those incarcerated for crimes they committed as juveniles.
ARTICLE: DR. WENDY SMITH: HEALING ADVERSE CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCE WITH EMPATHY AND CARE – IMPAAKT MAGAZINE
MARCH 29, 2024 – IMPAAKT STAFF
Adolescence – one of the most significant times that shape a child’s future. From mental, biological and social wellbeing, it is this age that acts as a catalyst for the future life. Unfortunately, 1 in 7 children are prone to child abuse and adverse childhood experiences. There are multiple factors that contribute to these unsettling statistics, but the primary is neglect and lack of awareness.
ARTICLE: WENDY SMITH OF THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA SUZANNE DWORAK-PECK SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK: 5 WAYS EMPATHY WILL AFFECT YOUR LEADERSHIP – AUTHORITY MAGAZINE/ MEDIUM.COM
MARCH 29, 2024 – CYNTHIA CORSETTI
Empathetic leaders can create a workplace community that is respectful and inclusive of differences of all kinds. Leaders serve as role models in everything they do; empathy by its very nature embodies acceptance and inclusion. When you create an inclusive community, people want to be part of it, and are likely to stay.
ARTICLE: HEALING A BROKEN MENTAL HEALTH SYSTEM: WENDY SMITH ON 5 THINGS THAT CAN BE DONE TO FIX OUR BROKEN MENTAL HEALTH SYSTEM – AUTHORITY MAGAZINE/ MEDIUM.COM
FEBRUARY 17, 2024 – STEPHANIE GREER, CEO OF AKIN MENTAL HEALTH
The current state of the mental health system is a conversation that echoes in the halls of policy-making, the corners of social advocacy, and within the private struggles of individuals and families. As we continue to witness an unprecedented need for robust mental health support, the shortcomings of the existing system become more glaring. It is within this backdrop that we seek the insight of those who are at the forefront of behavioral health. In this interview series, we are talking to behavioral health leaders, policymakers, mental health practitioners, advocates, and reformers to share their perspectives on healing our broken mental health system.