Judge is a legal term for an appointed or elected official who settles a civil, criminal or administrative dispute. Judges exercise significant governmental power, including the authority to issue warrants for search, arrest, imprisonment, confiscation, garnishment or deportation, and oversee trial procedures to prevent arbitrariness. They also decide cases on the basis of all available facts, governing law and valid arguments.

As such, judges must be able to understand and empathize with the many nuances of human behavior. They must have an unwavering commitment to the rule of law and be willing to make the tough calls. They are generally thoughtful individuals with a deep sense of responsibility. They are also often enterprising, enjoying the challenge of influencing and persuading people.

The best judges are not just fair, they’re compassionate as well. They feel a special bond with the people they interact with in the courtroom and the wider community as a whole. They know the value of bringing the human element to their rulings, whether it’s through granting parole to a felon who’s been on the streets for years or by ordering community-service projects for repeat DUI offenders.

A judge’s temperament interacts with the specific parameters of a particular judicial environment, such as its cultural norms, its repetitions and recurrent stressors, mechanisms of oversight and decisional constraints to produce behaviors. For example, a judge with moderately high levels of trait anger and average regulatory skill would function well in a role that requires frequent interactions with the public but is buffered by a collegial bench-and-bar culture that reduces opportunities for conflict and has clear consequences for discourteous and abusive behavior.