Military Service and Specialization in Criminal Violence
Open Access
Author:
Whichard, Corey Logan
Graduate Program:
Crime, Law and Justice
Degree:
Master of Arts
Document Type:
Master Thesis
Date of Defense:
August 14, 2014
Committee Members:
Richard B Felson, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Keywords:
Military Violence Specialization
Abstract:
I use data from a nationally representative sample of U.S. inmates in state and federal prisons to show that prisoners with military experience are more likely than non-veterans to have been incarcerated for violent crime than for non-violent crime. The effect of veteran status persists despite controls for known correlates of enlistment. Furthermore, the effect of veteran status cannot be attributed to combat experience, post-traumatic stress disorder, or alcoholism. Nor is it the case that veterans' higher rates of incarceration for violent crime are an outgrowth of their more extensive criminal histories, as only a small proportion of the veterans in this study committed crime during adolescence, and—compared to non-veterans—virtually none of them engaged in violent crime as minors. Thus, it appears that the effect of military service on violence is a consequence of military socialization. Alternative interpretations are discussed.