Comment by fluidcruft

My sense is it's important to keep in back-of-mind that there is a massive selection effect involved in terms of which people chose to enter these fields and what sorts of personal life events (trauma, abuse, witnessing of abuse etc) motives choosing to make this a career. These are not well-paid careers (nor are they high-status) so money and status are typically not motivations (in fact a relative of an in-law works in a closely-related field and we talk at Thanksgiving-type family events about work and their employers often seem to me to be exploiting their investment in the field). I think it's why it can be so difficult to discuss it with them, it is deeply personal and they feel the "system" failed in the past and they want it fixed.

Anyway, it's not meant as an ad hom, but it helps to step back and think why people are involved with certain roles.

To be clear: here the author only bothered look with his well-trained eyes because he was sucked in after the law intruded into his life. It's easy to assume that everyone is highly-skilled. But... highly-skilled people don't usually choose to work for peanuts without other reasons. Fields like this are neglected.