Magistrates' everyday work and emotional labour

Journal of Law and Society

Volumn 32, Issue 4, 2005, Pages 590-614

  Anleu, Sharyn Roach ^a   Mack, Kathy ^a  

^a FLINDERS UNIVERSITY   (Australia)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 28744442375     PISSN: 0263323X     EISSN: 14676478     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-6478.2005.00339.x     Document Type: Review

References (121)

1. A.R. Hochschild, 'Emotion Work, Feeling Rules and Social Structure' (1979) 85 Am. J. of Sociology 551;
2. A.R. Hochschild, The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling (1983);
3. S. Karstedt, 'Emotions and Criminal Justice' (2002) 6 Theoretical Crim. 299;
4. A. Konradi, 'Preparing to Testify: Rape Survivors Negotiating the Criminal Justice Process' (1996) 10 Gender and Society 404;
5. A. Konradi, '"I Don't Have to Be Afraid of You": Rape Survivors' Emotional Management in Court' (1999) 22 Symbolic Interaction 45;
6. J. Morison and P. Leith, The Barrister's World and the nature of law (1992) ch. 6.
7. A. Abbott, 'Status and Strain in the Professions' (1981) 86 Am. J. of Sociology 819, 823-24.
8. P. Bourdieu, 'The Force of Law: Toward a Sociology of the Juridical Field' (1987) 38 Hastings Law J. 814.
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11. A.R. Hochschild, The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling (1983) 89-136.
12. In most jurisdictions, the court is called the Magistrates' Court, except in New South Wales where it is the Local Court. In the Australian Capital Territory, the Northern Territory, and Tasmania there is no intermediate court between the Magistrates' Court and the Supreme Court. South Australia, Queensland, New South Wales, and Western Australia have a District Court and the equivalent in Victoria is the County Court.
13. Hochschild, op. cit., n. 6, p. 156.
14. id.
15. See, for example, Were v. Police [2003] SASC 116 and Shams v. Clarson [2002] WASCA 121;
16. D. Eccles and S. Fewster, 'Censure for "Abusive" Magistrate' The Advertiser (Adelaide), 2 May 2003, 3;
17. G. Kelton, 'Magistrate Called Accused a Junkie Who Would Die in the Gutter; It's Not a Hanging Offence But ... Please Explain' The Advertiser (Adelaide), 1 May 2003, 7;
18. G. Kelton, 'Magistrate Will Be Asked to Explain Abusive Remarks Made in Court; Junkie Was Told She Would Die in the Gutter' The Advertiser (Adelaide), 1 May 2003, 7.
19. Some developments in legal regulation, for example, the restorative justice movement, explicitly incorporate the emotions of shame into the judicial (or quasi-judicial) process: J. Braithwaite, Crime, Shame and Reintegration (1989);
20. K. Daly and H. Hayes, 'Restorative Justice and Conferencing in Australia', Trends and Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice papers, no. 186 (2001);
21. K. Daly and H. Hayes, 'Restorative Justice and Conferencing' in The Cambridge Handbook of Australian Criminology, eds. A. Graycar and P. Grabosky (2003) 294-312. The concern of this paper is not with specific reforms to the court process which rely on the explicit incorporation of emotions but with emotion management by judicial officers in the ordinary and everyday courtroom.
22. B. Lange, 'The Emotional Dimension in Legal Regulation' (2002) 29 J. of Law and Society 197.
23. J.B. Thomas, Judicial Ethics in Australia (1997, 2nd edn.) 195.
24. While magistrates have a wide jurisdiction, they are more likely to deal with certain kinds of matters than others. South Australian Office of Crime Statistics and Research data shows that (excluding many traffic offences and council matters) of all 29,206 criminal cases finalized in 2003, driving offences constituted the major charge at 24.5 per cent; offences against good order featured in a further 19.6 per cent of cases; larceny and receiving 13.0 per cent; offences against the person 13.3 per cent (excluding sexual offences); 1.4 per cent were for sexual offences; and 5.1 per cent were for non-offence matters (restraining orders of various kinds). Office of Crime Statistics and Research (SA), Crime and Justice in South Australia 2003: Adult Courts and Corrections (2004) 15.
25. J. Lowndes, 'The Australian Magistracy: From Justices of the Peace to Judges and Beyond Part I' (2000) 74 Austr. Law J. 509, at 519-24.
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30. Lowndes, Law and Society op. cit., n. 15.
31. Our data on the size of the Australian magistracy has been obtained and regularly updated from various public and official sources, including court websites and annual reports.
32. Steering Committee for the Review of Government Service Provision, Report on Government Services 2005 (2005) Table 6.4.
33. id., Tables 6.2 and 6.3.
34. Steering Committee for the Review of Government Service Provision, Report on Government Services 2004 (2004) Tables 6.9, 6.10, 16.28, 16.30. There are limits on the comparability of these figures. We have found significant problems with obtaining accurate national statistical data.
35. One dimension of security of tenure is statutory retirement provisions. Judges in Australia are not appointed for life, but rather until a fixed retirement age. Mandatory retirement age is 65 for all magistrates except in Victoria, where it is 70 and in New South Wales and Tasmania, where it is 72. In district and supreme courts the retirement age is 70 in all jurisdictions except New South Wales and Tasmania, where it is 72. There is some allowance for earlier voluntary retirement. Magistrates, like other judicial officers, are subject to removal for cause, though the processes for removal are quite cumbersome.
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39. R. Moorhead et al., 'What Clients Know: Client Perspectives and Legal Competence' (2003) 10 International J. of the Legal Profession 5. We are grateful to a reviewer for suggesting this point.
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41. Hochschild distinguishes between the performance of emotional labour and emotional burdens on the worker: [A]lthough the social worker, the day-care provider, the doctor, and the lawyer have personal contact and try to affect the emotional states of others, they do not work with an emotion supervisor immediately on hand. Rather, they supervise their own emotional labor by considering informational professional norms and client expectations (id., p. 153). In Hochschild's articulation of emotional labour, rules about how to feel and how to express feeling are set by management.
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48. J.L. Pierce Annals of the Am. Academy of Political and Social Science id., pp. 127, at 135-36.
49. K.J. Lively, 'Reciprocal Emotion Management' (2000) 27 Work and Occupations 32, 41, 45.
50. K.J. Lively Work and Occupations id., pp. 32, 57.
51. K.J. Lively Work and Occupations id., pp. 32, 41, 45.
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55. Hochschild, Academy of Management J. op. cit., n. 6, pp. 16, 139.
56. Rafaeli and Sutton, Academy of Management J. op. cit. (1991), n. 36, pp. 758-61.
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58. S.E. Martin Annals of the Am. Academy of Political and Social Science id., p. 116.
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60. A.S. Wharton, 'The Psychosocial Consequences of Emotional Labor' (1999) 561 Annals of the Am. Academy of Political and Social Science 158, at 162.
61. A.S. Wharton Annals of the Am. Academy of Political and Social Science id., p. 165.
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81. Hochschild, J. of Social Distress and the Homeless op. cit. n. 6, p. 89.
82. Hochschild J. of Social Distress and the Homeless id., p. 153.
83. Hochschild J. of Social Distress and the Homeless id., pp. 153, 234-8.
84. E. Campbell and H.P. Lee, The Australian Judiciary (2001) 14.
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96. also, see Judicial Studies Board (UK), Fairness in Courts and Tribunals: A Summary of the Equal Treatment Bench Book (2004).
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98. Bourdieu, op. cit., n. 3.
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105. Strauss and Corbin, Criminal Justice Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches id., p. 19.
106. S. Roach Anleu and K. Mack, Magistrates Survey: Preliminary Findings on Job Satisfaction, Workload and Stress: Magistrates Research Project (2003).
107. In the context of the Australian magistracy, gender, age, and time on the bench are highly correlated. In general, women magistrates are younger and more recently appointed than their male counterparts. The recognition of emotions and the willingness to engage in emotional labour might be more related to time on the bench - recent recruits from legal practice might have a different orientation than longer-serving magistrates - than gender. From the interviewee sample, we cannot discern the relative effect (either singly or in combination) of these independent variables on emotional labour.
108. A. Abbott, 'Status and Strain in the Professions' (1981) 86 Am. J. of Sociology 819.
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112. Tyler, Why People Obey the Law id. (1990), p. 7.
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120. A.S. Wharton, 'The Affective Consequences of Service Work: Managing Emotions on the Job' (1993) 20(2) Work and Occupations 205.
121. Maslach et al., Work and Occupations op. cit., n. 87.