Recruitment patterns,gender, and professional subcultures of the judiciary in Russia

This article explores sources of recruitment of judges and the influence of the social characteristics of judges on professional culture. Using the original survey and interview data from the Russian Federation, the authors identify and explain the changes in recruitment patterns that followed the judicial reform in the early 2000s. The authors look for profession-related differences between judges who had prior experience of work in the prosecutor's office and judges who were recruited from the court's non-judicial technical staff or from police investigation. Other key issues addressed are the bureaucratization and feminization of the judiciary. Using the survey designed to reveal professional values, norms and attitudes of judges, the authors highlight different professional subcultures constituted by certain combinations of social characteristics of judges.