People don’t typically go to court for happy reasons. They may be involved in cases involving horrific details of violence, sexual abuse of children and adults, road deaths, drug addiction, family disintegration, child and elder care.
Judges are expected to address each situation individually, listen impartially to witnesses, and view other evidence. Today, evidence comes up close and personal from individuals describing the often harrowing details of their case. But it also comes in many other formats, including grisly photos and videos, or frightening emails, voicemails, and text messages.
This repeated exposure to traumatic details that judges face daily can lead to secondary or vicarious trauma. In addition to presiding over cases involving traumatic events, judges in emotionally charged cases may have concerns about safety.
Finally, the high caseloads that many judges deal with can add to the stress levels, which in turn makes them more susceptible to vicarious trauma.
The research on secondary or vicarious trauma and compassion fatigue initially focused on professions such as nurses, emergency responders, therapists, and other helping professions who were repeatedly exposed to the traumatic events that affected the people they were charged with helping.
Here’s a video created by Veteos about veterinary compassion fatigue for example:
While some attempts have been made to define and differentiate between the terms compassion fatigue, burnout, secondary trauma, and vicarious trauma, they continue to be used interchangeably.
The fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistics Manual was released in May 2013. For the first time it included vicarious trauma defined as “repeated or extreme exposure to details of the event(s).” Exposure through pictures or media to someone else’s trauma didn’t qualify unless it was related to work. This is exactly what happens in a court every day. The repeated exposure to detailed accounts, pictures, and videos of traumatic events that affected someone else is a daily occurrence for judges.
Legal and judicial training don’t typically focus on how one feels. Judges are usually law trained, and lawyers as a group are known to be at high risk for depression and substance abuse. In 2003, 105 judges working in criminal, family, and juvenile court completed surveys on trauma while attending various judicial conferences. Based on the responses, 63 per cent reported symptoms of work-related vicarious trauma.
A 2009 study tested law students for anxiety and depression to determine if the individuals who chose law school were already experiencing these symptoms. While new law students were no more anxious or depressed than the general public, at six months a dramatic increase was seen. This elevation of stress symptoms continued during the three years of law school and for at least two years after.
While it’s not clear what causes this increase in anxiety and depression, it is clear that law-trained individuals are more susceptible to the effects of daily stressors.
Our brains are wired to feel empathy, and our bodies may experience this through sensory neurons known as mirror neurons. This was first discovered with physical motions, such as viewing someone drinking a glass of water. The same neurons light up in the person viewing the action as in the person drinking the water.
Similarly, when listening to or viewing someone else’s trauma, our bodies can experience their pain through our mirror-neuron system. We can also use our mirror-neuron system to vicariously calm ourselves. To do this we must develop resilience, and there are ways to do this:
Awareness
First, it’s important to know the signs and symptoms of vicarious trauma in yourself and in your colleagues. This can be accomplished by providing training that identifies the stressors, symptoms, and techniques for preventing or addressing vicarious trauma by building resilience. This type of training can emphasize that developing these types of reactions to trauma is part of being human and not a sign of weakness.
Balance
The second aspect of building resilience is the importance of self-care. Individuals who are exposed to these daily descriptions and pictures of the trauma experienced by others must learn to set boundaries between their work and private lives. To some extent, this can be accomplished by the usual admonitions to get enough sleep, to participate in an exercise program, and to eat a healthy diet. Other important techniques include meditation, yoga, and mindfulness training.
Connection
Because judges are typically isolated in dealing with specific cases, it is important to debrief with colleagues who understand the situation. When this is not possible, or is not enough, a therapist can provide this type of connection and support. Individuals facing this kind of vicarious trauma need to be surrounded by a strong system of supportive relationships
In this regular blog, judges will talk of their experience and suggest helpful ways they found to cope.