The All-volunteer Force and Crime

• Author: Nadine M. Connell,Jessica M. Craig
• DOI: 10.1177/0095327X13507258
• Published date: 01 April 2015
• Date: 01 April 2015
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

The All-volunteer Force

and Crime: The Effects

of Military Participation

on Offending Behavior

Jessica M. Craig

1

and Nadine M. Connell

1

Abstract

Sampson and Laub’s age-graded theory of informal social control posits that social

bonds created through marriage, military, and employment lead to a decrease of

criminal behavior or desistance. Most research has focused primarily on the roles

of marriage and employment in this process, ignoring the impact of military service

on future offending behavior. However, recent US military involvement in the Mid-

dle East suggests that the effects of military experience on individuals should be ree-

valuated. Using data collected from a more recent sample of military-involved

individuals, all of whom served in the All-volunteer Force, this study examines how

participation in the military impacts offending and potential desistance. The results

demonstrate that, overall, modern-day military involvement does not have the same

protective effect on future offending as observed in World War II samples. Racial

subgroup analyses, however, suggest that military involvement leads to a greater

likelihood of desistance for minority service members.

Keywords

AVF, desistance, race, protective effect

1

The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, USA

Corresponding Author:

Jessica M. Craig, Department of Criminology, The University of Texas at Dallas, 800 West Campbell Road

GR 31, Richardson, TX 75080, USA.

Email: jessica.craig@utdallas.edu

Armed Forces & Society

2015, Vol. 41(2) 329-351

ªThe Author(s) 2013

Reprints and permission:

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DOI: 10.1177/0095327X13507258

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Introduction

Sampson and Laub’s age-graded theory of informal social control posits that indi-

viduals commit crimes when their bonds to social capital are weak.

1

These authors

also argue that furthermore, turning points in the life course of an individual can

increase bonds to conventional society in a myriad of ways, which can then lead

to decreasing their criminal behavior, a process known as desistance. Laub and

Sampson identified several of these turning points, including marriage, employment,

and enlistment in the military, in a sample of 1,000 boys in Boston.

2

Originally

collected between 1939 and 1965, these data contain detailed information about the

personal, family, and professional lives of 500 delinquents and 500 matched nonde-

linquents, all white males from Boston. Approximately two-thirds of the sample of

men served during World War II (WWII) in various capacities, representing all four

branches of the military and 61 percent of the men served overseas.

3

These men

often reported that the structure, education, and resources provided by their military

experience gave them both the motivation and the opportunity to desist from crim-

inal activity. Similar results on the long-term offending patterns of men having

served during the draft era of the military have been found, most notably with regard

to service during WWII and the Korean War.

4

However, since the Vietnam War, as well as advent of the AVF, or All-volunteer

Force, the research on the potential impact of military service on criminal activity

has been mixed.

5

For instance, Wright, Carter, and Cullen reported that Vietnam vet-

erans, when compared to their WWII and Korean War counterparts, performed

poorly in the labor market.

6

Bouffard found that military service was related to an

increase in violence among those serving during the early AVF.

7

Given these contra-

dictory results, it is important to study the effects that contemporary military service

may have on individuals; using a nationally representative longitudinal sample helps

researchers take into consideration the changes in the structure of the military over

the years, the differences between past and current enlistees, and the changing social

construction of military involvement.

8

This study analyzes the impact of military involvement on the crime trajectories

of a group of previously identified juvenile delinquents; using waves I and IV of the

National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, or Add Health, data set, the rela-

tionship between juvenile delinquency and adult criminality for those with military

experience is examined. In keeping with the tenets of Laub and Sampson’s theory, it

is hypothesized that military involvement should lead to desistance from offending.

9

There are various definitions of desistance in the literature and Laub and Sampson

define it as a process leading to decreases in offending over time.

10

Thus, desistance

is operationalized in this analysis as a process and this perspective will allow for the

examination of changes in levels of offending over time. Further, there are different

types of military experience that could be addressed and this research utilizes a broad

definition due to data availability that includes serving in active duty, in the reserves,

or with the National Guard. The data analyzed are not based on a military sample, so

330 Armed Forces & Society 41(2)