• Corpus ID: 40895625

INSIDE THE JUDGES ’ CHAMBERS : NARRATIVE RESPONSES FROM THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF IMMIGRATION JUDGES STRESS AND BURNOUT SURVEY

@inproceedings{Lustig2009INSIDETJ,
  title={INSIDE THE JUDGES ’ CHAMBERS : NARRATIVE RESPONSES FROM THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF IMMIGRATION JUDGES STRESS AND BURNOUT SURVEY},
  author={Stuart L. Lustig and Niranjan S. Karnik and Kevin L. Delucchi and Lakshika Tennakoon and B. K. Kaul and Hon. Denise Noonan Slavin},
  year={2009}
}

• S. Lustig, N. Karnik, +3 authors Hon. Denise Noonan Slavin
• Published 2009
• Psychology

Immigration Judges (IJs), whose enormous caseloads consist of one horrific story of human suffering after another, face significant risks of stress and burnout – conditions that make adjudicating cases more challenging. Among this population we recently quantified stress and burnout using objective survey measures that showed that IJs suffer from significant symptoms of secondary traumatic stress and more burnout than has been reported by groups like prison wardens or physicians in busy hospitals. In this study, we analyzed data from a free response item asking about the challenges of IJs’ work, which generated narrative responses from 59 judges. We then used qualitative data analytic methods to code themes in the narratives, which were then clustered into five metacodes: “workload/time demands,” “infrastructure problems,” “challenges to esteem,” “psychological/ health issues” and “fraud.” The narratives provide a richly detailed and concerning perspective on the working conditions of IJs: Women IJs were more likely than men to volunteer concerns categorized as “psychological/ health issues.” Higher stress and burnout scores were associated with “psychological/health issues” and “fraud,” and higher burnout scores were also associated with “challenges to esteem.” After examining our findings we discuss recommendations for improving IJ work conditions to address these critical issues.