Deconstructing Trauma: How Military Experiences Affect Veteran Prison Misconduct

Military veterans may exhibit a multitude of criminogenic risk factors that can result in contact with the criminal justice system. These include mental health disorders, substance abuse issues, antisocial cognitions, family or marital dysfunction, homelessness, and unemployment. Although prior research has examined these risks as they correspond to arrest, court processing, or incarceration, far fewer studies have investigated the context of veterans’ service histories inside prisons or how they relate to institutional infractions and misconduct. Further specificity into the continuity of maladaptive behaviors within the correctional environment could serve to identify the most salient risk factors that are associated with recidivistic tendencies among justice-involved veterans, and assist with improving facility assessment screenings, rehabilitative treatment or programming, and reentry processes linked to responsive services. Additionally, the military histories of some veterans may involve potentially traumatic experiences such as war zone deployment, combat exposure, physical injuries, contact with environmental hazards, or witnessing the casualties of war. Using a national sample of male veteran prisoners (n = 1,176), we evaluated these five separate traumatic events along with demographic controls, physical and mental health attributes, criminal history, and other military background variables. The results of the negative binomial regression found that deployment (IRR = 0.65), exposure to toxic hazards (IRR = 0.58), and longer military careers (IRR = 0.97) were significantly associated with reduced prison misconduct. Conversely, experiencing combat (IRR = 1.63) was a significant predictor of increased misconduct. Service branch and type of military discharge had no impact.