11/18/2025
š„NEW PUBLICATION ALERTš„
Absolutely thrilled to share that my first-author paper is published in Social Science & Medicine, exploring how āļø criminal-attorney stress, secondary trauma, and legal-culture norms shape attitudes and responses to substance use (SU).
Our findings highlight that:
āļø Courts and other elements of the criminal legal system are overwhelmed with enormous caseloads involving people struggling with drugs and alcohol.
š This is the first study to illuminate how SU stigma operates within the criminal legal systemāboth toward defendants with SU-related challenges and toward attorneys managing their own SUārelated distressārevealing critical implications for justice, wellness, and legal culture.
š¼ Criminal attorneysāboth prosecutors and defense counselā often face a toxic mix of stress, burnout, and secondary trauma.
š· Legal culture discourages help-seeking while paradoxically normalizing unhealthy coping through alcohol and other SU.
š Participants emphasized that increased training, better resources for SUārelated cases, and behavioral health reforms to law-school curricula would meaningfully address many of the occupational stressors that attorneys face and improve their ability to manage substance-related issues in practice.
šļø System managers and professional legal organizations must take a more active role in supporting attorneys' wellbeing and aligning societal responses to SU with public health principles.
š¬ I would be remiss not to highlight the essential contribution of individuals with lived experience in informing SUD research. š« Having navigated these systems ourselves, we hold insights that are vital to identifying gaps and guiding effective solutionsāand to reshaping how systems respond.
š Citation:
Ge**er, G. E., Bazzi , A. R., Beletsky, L., Pitpitan, E. V., Reed, M. B., & Smith, L. R. (2025). Occupational stress and substance use-related stigma among criminal attorneys. Social Science & Medicine (1982), 118757, 118757.
