Responding to Secondary Traumatisation in the Criminal Justice System

Despite broad recognition that working in the criminal justice system can be stressful, particularly for police, correctional service workers, lawyers, and the judiciary, there is limited evidence about how the sector has acted to minimise or prevent work-related psychosocial harms. This chapter focuses on workers’ trauma and distress as the result of experiencing primary/direct adversity and secondary traumatisation (i.e., from exposure to the adverse experiences and trauma of others). Secondary traumatisation may manifest across human domains in the same way as the impact of direct adversity. This chapter examines what is known about traumatic stress, vicarious trauma, and psychosocial harms in specific criminal justice roles. Strategies to prevent and respond to secondary traumatisation are explored. I argue that a trauma-informed response offers a protective and proactive strategy for all workers in the criminal justice sector. The chapter concludes by discussing effective coping, resilience to trauma, and post-traumatic growth.