ABSTRACT The U.S. incarcerates more people than any other country in the world, with 2.2 million people currently behind bars, 60% of whom are people of color.1–3 At the same time, there is an unprecedented political consensus to develop strategies for reducing the incarcerated population and safely returning the majority of incarcerated individuals to society.4 While there has been a substantial research focus on the potential of this population to commit acts of violence post-release, this tells only half the story.5 This dissertation hopes to provide a more complete picture of the role of violence in the lives of individuals released from prison – not only as perpetrators of violence, but also as victims of violence throughout their lives. Research indicates that this population experiences unusually high levels of exposure to trauma across the life course and that effective post-release intervention will require trauma-informed service systems and trauma-specific interventions.6,7 Lifetime prevalence of PTSD is estimated to be 20-60% for incarcerated men,8–10 compared to 3.6% in community samples.11 Few studies exist, however, documenting the types of trauma exposures, developmental timing of the trauma exposures, and types of trauma symptoms experienced by incarcerated individuals, especially men, as most trauma research to date has focused on incarcerated women.7 In order to develop appropriate interventions that increase the likelihood that incarcerated individuals will be capable of functioning in society after release, it is essential that knowledge about the specific nature of trauma for this population be further developed. Data for this dissertation will be taken from a parent study performing a randomized controlled trial (RCT) on a reentry intervention. The study sample consists of 2400 individuals (90% male, 10% female) transitioning out of prisons in seven states. The parent study includes survey data about the participants’ lifetime trauma experiences and current trauma symptoms, as well as a wealth of other demographic and background information. The proposed study will use this data to document the numbers, types, and timing of trauma exposures for this sample. First, it will identify distinct classes of study participants based on lifetime trauma exposure. A latent class analysis (LCA)12 using the Trauma History Questionnaire (THQ)13 will be used to determine if classes of participants are distinguished by number, type, and timing of trauma exposure. Second, it will describe membership within latent classes according to demographic, substance use, and criminal justice variables. Using covariates such as gender, race/ethnicity, current substance use disorder, and type of conviction, predictors of latent class membership will be identified to determine if certain individual characteristics increase the likelihood of belonging to certain subgroups. Lastly, this study will analyze the relationships between latent class membership ...