The effects of the justice system on mental health

Abstract

Anyone involved in legal proceedings will warn you that a long-drawn-out legal battle will drain your mental health. This study aimed to assess the psychological effects of being processed by the justice system. The sample consisted of 360 subjects, residents in Spain. Were administered a questionnaire on the experience of contact with the justice system, a temporal perspective inventory, locus of control, psychological reactance, coping strategies, health self-efficacy, and psychosomatic symptomology. Results revealed significant differences between plaintiffs and defendants, although it was also confirmed that both parties showed greater pessimism about the future. So, the former were more pessimistic about the future, used poor strategies for protecting their health, and had less empathy. In contrast, coincidentally in some variables, defendants had a more negative outlook on life, and in general more psychosomatic symptomology. The health of the group with the longest exposure to legal proceedings was the most deteriorated.

Key words:

• defendants
• family law
• justice system
• legal psychology
• litigation
• mental health
• plaintiffs

Ethical standards

Declaration of conflicts of interest

Miguel Clemente has declared no conflicts of interest

Dolores Padilla-Racero has declared no conflicts of interest

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in the present study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional Ethic Committee of the Universidade da Coruna (Spain) and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study

Acknowledgements

All authors have contributed equally to the development of this research and to the elaboration of the manuscript. All authors agree with the final version of this manuscript and assume responsibility for it.

This research was not pre-registered. The data used in the research are available and can be obtained by emailing the corresponding author. The materials used in the research are available and can be obtained by emailing the corresponding author.