Nearly two thirds say judges committed the harassment
A new survey from the Criminal Bar Association has found a high incidence of harassment in New Zealand’s justice system.
The survey found that 88.1% of respondents say they have personally experienced or witnessed harassment or bullying. What’s more, 64.71% say that it was a judge that committed the harassing or bullying. This is followed by:
- Colleague or group of colleagues – 43.9%
- Opposing counsel – 32.9%
- Client – 31.4%
- Employer – 23.9%
- Police officer or police prosecutor – 23.1%
- A member of the public – 18.4%
- A court staff member – 12.2%
- Someone who works for you – 2.4%
The type of bullying or harassment experienced or witnessed by the respondents are:
- Mocking or professionally insulting – 69.2%
- Invalid or baseless criticism or fault finding – 60.1%
- Shouting or raised voice – 58.1%
- Based on age or experience – 56.9%
- Based on gender – 45.9%
- Personal comment or insult – 44.7%
- Unwelcome sexual attention – 28.5%
- Threats both overt or covert – 27.3%
- Being set unrealistic goals or expectations – 24.5%
- Based on race – 17.0%
- Withholding information vital to effective work performance – 13.0%
- Deliberate exclusion from workplace activities – 8.3%
- Based on family circumstances – 5.9%
- Based on sexual orientation – 4.7%
Of the 283 respondents, 64% were women, while 36.04% were men. The bar said that 40.43% or respondents are barristers sole, followed by firm employees (17.73%), Public Defence Service workers (12.06%), Crown or police or government employees (11.35%), firm partners (10.99%), employed barristers (4.96%), and in-house counsel (2.48%).
Asked how many times they had experienced or witnessed harassment or bullying in the last four years, the respondents said:
- 0 to 5 – 40.4%
- 6 to 10 – 21.7%
- More than 10 – 20.2%
- More than 20 – 17.7%
Respondents were mostly stressed and lost confidence because of the behaviour.
- Stress – 77.9%
- Loss of confidence – 73.1%
- Reduced desire to continue working in that field – 61.3%
- Anxiety – 51.0%
- Fear of re-entering the environment – 39.5%
- Breakdown of the professional working relationship – 39.1%
- Sleep disturbance – 38.3%
- Moving to another position/job – 19.4%
- Other – 14.6%
- Nausea – 11.1%
- Taking more sick leave – 10.3%
- Withdrawal/isolation – 10.2%
- Substance abuse – 7.1%
- High blood pressure – 6.3%
