Race, Service, and Desistance: Differences in Military Service and Crime Reduction

• In Event: The Military, Religion, and the Life Course

Abstract

Numerous studies have addressed the value of military service as a source of desistance, removing individuals from neighborhood influences of crime, providing new pro-social peer groups, and establishing work experience and skills transferable to a pro-social adult life. Service as a source of change evolved in the 20th century due to developments in recruitment tactics and the dissolution of the draft, thereby altering its impact on crime reduction. The value of service is further complicated by differences in service recruitment and rates by race, which previous studies have controlled but not explicitly studied. Utilizing meta-regression analytic techniques, I will examine the impact of race on the effect of military service over chronological time. This study will directly address differences in service as a source of behavioral change over time, suggesting new opportunities for military involvement as a policy initiative, and the findings should elaborate on the need to address different experience by race more directly.

Author

• David Abeling-Judge, Barton College