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Title: Examining the Impact of Military Experience on Crime: Issues of Race and the Life Course
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Newton, Katherine
Examining the Impact of Military Experience on Crime: Issues of Race and the Life Course
Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Sociology, University of Akron, 2018
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79, NLSY79 Young Adult
Publisher: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT)
Keyword(s): Behavior; Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Crime; Life Course; Military Service; Racial Differences; Stress

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Upon returning home from serving, military members experience several hardships including posttraumatic stress disorder, substance and alcohol use, and a higher risk of involvement in crime. There has long been an interest in criminology pertaining to the relationship of military experience and crime. However, the research examining this relationship is largely inconsistent and is made even more unclear when taking combat and race into account. In this dissertation, I address these issues and use a quasi-experimental methodological technique that aims to overcome these inconsistencies. Using life course perspective and data derived from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, Child and Young Adult sample (NLSY-CYA) 1986-2014, I examine the impact serving in the military has on individuals and how this varies by race. I do this by first matching individuals based on demographics, cognitive predictors, and childhood experiences and behaviors to obtain propensity scores where the binary treatment indicator is military experience (treatment) and no military experience (control). Then, I examine criminal offending differences between military members and civilians. Finally, I examine just the military sample to develop a greater understanding of the military experience and how combat and race impacts crime. This dissertation contributes not only to the literature in criminology and the life course perspective but also to military research and race literature.
Bibliography Citation
Newton, Katherine. Examining the Impact of Military Experience on Crime: Issues of Race and the Life Course. Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Sociology, University of Akron, 2018.