Before the Crime: Trauma, Childhood, and the Question of Who We Punish

What if the question isn’t what someone deserves but what it would take for them to live a good life? In this episode, Justin Yentes sits down with Liz, a pioneering mitigation specialist and author of the upcoming book The Deserving. Through decades of work on capital cases, Liz has helped courts see the full humanity of people facing society’s harshest punishments. Together, they unpack how trauma, poverty, intergenerational harm, and systemic failure shape lives long before the justice system ever becomes involved and why punishment alone cannot create safety or justice. Liz also shares the cases that changed her, the patterns she’s seen across hundreds of lives, and why mitigation isn’t about excuses, it’s about context, truth, and moral clarity.

Key Topics Covered:

• Why jurors often never hear the full story before deciding life or death

• The myth of equal opportunity and the danger of retributive justice

• How adverse childhood experiences shape behavior, health, and outcomes

• Intergenerational trauma and the unseen legacy of abuse, poverty, and violence

• Mental health crises and why jails have become America’s largest providers

This episode will challenge deeply held beliefs about punishment, responsibility, and who we consider worthy of care.

If this conversation unsettles you, that’s the point. This episode asks us to rethink who we protect, who we abandon, and what kind of society we’re choosing to build.

Follow Justin and the pod: @truthbefoundpodcast

Link to Justin’s agency, AIA: https://azprivateinvestigator.com

Follow Liz: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-vartkessian/

Follow ARC, Inc.: @advancechange

About Advancing Real Change, Inc.: https://advancechange.org/