A new study from the Council on Criminal Justice finds “roughly one third of veterans report having been arrested and booked into jail at least once in their lives, compared to fewer than one fifth of non-veterans.”
Military.com reports on the causes for vets getting arrested at a higher rate.
The think tank explained that “the reasons underlying veterans’ justice-system involvement are complex, ranging from combat-related risk factors to ‘bad-paper’ discharges that bar VA benefits,” as well as “inconsistent diversion mechanisms.”
“Service-related trauma and other legacies of deployment push too many veterans on a path toward incarceration,” Hagel said in the announcement. “We can and must do more to understand and interrupt that trajectory.
