The Cost of Working Directly With Offenders: A Systematic Review of the Mental Health Implications

Working with offender populations imposes a high cost of caring, exposing professionals to unique psychological and emotional challenges, often leading to compassion fatigue - a multidimensional construct encompassing burnout, secondary traumatic stress, and vicarious trauma. Despite having gained recognition across various professional domains, the impact of this phenomenon remains underexplored among professionals working directly with offenders. This systematic literature review synthesises findings from peer-reviewed studies to examine the prevalence and link between compassion fatigue, its components, and associated mental health outcomes. Following PRISMA guidelines, a systematic search was conducted across three platforms (EBSCOhost, PubMed, and Web of Science), supplemented by a manual search. Of 2,911 identified studies, 41 were retained for full-text review. Sixteen studies, published between 2001 and 2024, met the inclusion criteria. These studies covered healthcare professionals, correctional officers, probation and parole officers, and counsellors. Findings indicated moderate-to-high compassion fatigue, burnout, secondary traumatic stress, and vicarious trauma levels. Common experiences included emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation, reduced personal accomplishment, depressive symptoms, and clinically relevant post-traumatic stress symptoms. Prolonged exposure to trauma, offender-related stressors, and organisational demands emerged as key contributors to the cost of caring. Overall, the evidence points to a structural, not merely individual, mental health risk for professionals working with offenders and underscores the need for organisational responsibility. Future research should prioritise longitudinal designs, underrepresented professional groups, and diversity-informed approaches to workforce protection.