Are Inmates With Military Backgrounds “Army Strong?”

We use data from the Survey of Inmates in State and Federal Correctional Facilities 2004 to examine the relationship between prior military service and misbehavior for a nationally representative sample of incarcerated inmates. Our regression analyses, based on 18,185 respondents across 326 prisons,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Criminal justice policy review 2017-10, Vol.28 (8), p.814-841
Main Authors: Logan, Matthew William, Pare, Paul-Philippe
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Army
Correctional institutions
Military service
Post traumatic stress disorder
Prisoners
Prisons
Respondents
Victimization
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Summary:We use data from the Survey of Inmates in State and Federal Correctional Facilities 2004 to examine the relationship between prior military service and misbehavior for a nationally representative sample of incarcerated inmates. Our regression analyses, based on 18,185 respondents across 326 prisons, suggest that inmates with military backgrounds tend to fare better than others across 12 negative prison outcomes. In contrast, we do not find much support for the argument—implied by violentization and other theories—that inmates with military backgrounds fare worse than others, with the exception of high levels of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and violent victimization. Supplementary analyses also show conditional patterns based on exposure to combat as well as honorable versus dishonorable discharge.
ISSN:0887-4034
1552-3586
DOI:10.1177/0887403415623033