Education Initiatives
The Institute provides educational programs to judges and administrators on trauma-informed practices and systems-level change, reaching judges and administrators from Arizona, California, Louisiana, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. We have also lectured nationally as part of the State Department Speaker Series, led large webinars, and created new judges’ orientation programs.
The Institute’s trauma-informed courts curriculum helps judges, court officers, and court administrators understand the nature of trauma, the origin and lasting effects of trauma and toxic stress, intergenerational trauma, the connection between trauma and addiction, approaches to mitigating stress and establishing coping strategies, and other essential knowledge. The course also offers concrete practices judges might adopt in order to better interact with affected parties, particularly juveniles, read and understand trauma assessments, and craft trauma-informed orders.
All trainings include at least two perspectives: the scientific and the judicial. First, we describe the effects of trauma on the brain and body, its connection to court-involvement, and how to help build resilience so that the brain can heal. Second, we offer concrete practices to help address trauma in the courtroom, building specific strategies that judges or administrators can implement to improve courtroom experiences for those with or without trauma. We focus on four types of practices: communication, procedures, courtroom environment, and sentencing. We close by discussing how judges can address their own vicarious trauma, or the kind of mental health effects that certain professionals might experience from exposure to others’ trauma.
Longer trainings may also include perspectives from trauma doctors, sitting judges, attorneys, and those with lived experience of trauma and the legal system, along with opportunities for practice through hypothetical courtroom scenarios. Trainings can also address approaches to system-wide change and administrative approaches to creating more trauma-informed courts.
Email Amelia Thorn at amelia.thorn@law.duke.edu if your court is interested in a training.
Free Educational Materials
The Institute and its partners have developed the following educational materials:
Trauma & Related Research: Quick Reference Sheet
This one-pager summarizes the state of science on trauma, the brain, and its relationship to criminal activity—as well as how judges can better respond to this reality.
Trauma-Informed Bench-card
Co-created with the North Carolina Judicial Branch, this bench-card highlights key consideration and practices for engaging with traumatized populations.
Witness to the System: Insights from Court Observation
As part of a research project exploring trauma-informed judicial practice in juvenile courts, our team observed over 200 hearings. Along the way, we not only gained valuable insights into judicial behaviors but also discovered much about the experience of court observation itself.
To share what we learned, we created Witness to the System—a series of creative graphic notes capturing key takeaways, lessons learned, and memorable quotes from our observers. These products offer practical guidance for two audiences: judges, who may benefit from understanding what it’s like for people in their courtrooms, and future court observers (e.g., researchers, court watchers), who may benefit from hearing how we developed our observation instrument and prepared for and conducted systematic court observations. Together, these graphic notes aim to inform, prepare, and inspire those engaged in this important work.
Witness to the System: What is it like to experience court?
From insights on the vast range of judge behaviors witnessed in the courtroom to the ways in which team members’ perceptions of the court system shifted as a result of observing, this graphic helps paint a picture of what it is like to sit within a juvenile delinquency courtroom.
Witness to the System: A guide for future court observers
Learn how our research team developed, piloted, and used a court observation instrument to systematically study judge behavior in court, along with various tips for engaging in effective, thoughtful, and reflective court observation.
Witness to the System: Key takeaways from judge observations (forthcoming)
Our team observed more than 200 hearings in a Southeastern U.S. state, rating judges on their use of trauma-informed practices. See which areas judges scored highest in—as well as those areas in which judges have the most room for growth.
Judicial Evaluation Form (forthcoming)
Judges seeking to “grade themselves” on their own court practices—or ask those in their courtroom for feedback—can use this evaluation form, which highlights 15 key practices to improve courtroom interactions and offers concrete examples of trauma-informed judicial behavior (forthcoming).
Past Trainings
The Institute has administered, led, and/or organized educational programs for a variety of audiences across many different venues. Use the toggles below to learn more about these past trainings.
Onsite Judicial Trainings
- Pilot Program: The Institute partnered with the North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts to create and administer an educational pilot program for about a dozen district court judges. The judges in attendance hailed from both urban and rural counties and represented a range of judicial experiences and prior encounters with trauma education. Months after the program, judges were systematically interviewed about their perspective on the program and their implementation of the practices offered in the training. Findings are published in Judicature, with an additional article in a scientific journal forthcoming.
- Program for Chief District Court Judges: The Institute hosted all district court chiefs in the state, providing the latter group with two days of education on trauma-informed courts.
- North Carolina Chief Justice’s Task Force on ACES-Informed Courts: The Institute served as the Educational Subcommittee Chair of the Task Force, regularly presenting to its members on ongoing educational and research efforts.
- Trauma-Informed Courts Conference for North Carolina Chief District Court Judges: The Institute hosted the leaders of the 41 district courts from across the state for a day of programming about building trauma-informed courts and programs in their communities.
- Duke Law’s Masters in Judicial Studies Program: The Institute taught judges attending Duke Law’s LLM program about ongoing education and research efforts in trauma-informed courts.
Offsite Judicial Trainings
The Institute continues to offer similar trainings to judges in other states involved in both juvenile and adult courts, including:
- Pathways to Resilience Learning Network Session: Trauma-Informed Courts
- Arizona Statewide Court Team Day
- Arizona Cradle to Crayons Judicial Education Day
- North Carolina New Judges Orientation
- Trauma-Informed Courts for Visiting Pennsylvania Judges Delegation
- National Council of Juvenile & Family Court Judges’ Trauma-Informed Juvenile Courts Summit
- Louisiana Judicial Conference
- State Department Speaker Program—Bahrain; Trauma-Informed Practices for Victims
- Online programs in trauma-informed interviewing and trauma-informed assessments and sentencing (co-presented with leaders from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network)
Law Students
- Trauma-Informed Lawyering: The Institute offered Duke Law’s first trauma-focused lawyering course as part of a Wintersession course in early 2024. Wintersession offers students an opportunity to focus on a topic of practical interest in a brief, intensive setting, emphasizing hands-on, experiential learning. The course offered an overview of the science behind trauma, advice on how to work with clients who have experienced trauma, and approaches to address vicarious trauma in the workplace.
Other Audiences
- Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues National Conference
- National Council of Juvenile & Family Court Judges’ Court Observation Workshop