SBAND Seminar Materials 2013 Free Ethics: Echoes of War The Combat Veteran | Page 14
years
after
the
war,
approximately
a
quarter
million
veterans,
a
large
portion
from
the
Vietnam
era,
were
still
housed
in
our
nation’s
prisons.50
Those
who
attempt
to
deny
the
link
between
war
trauma
and
crime
often
cite
this
same
1998
Department
of
Justice
study
cited
above,
pointing
out
that
veterans
are
imprisoned
in
smaller
percentages
than
the
civilian
population.
What
they
overlook,
however,
is
that
since
WWI,
the
military
has
aggressively
screened
out
those
it
deems
psychologically
or
morally
unfit.
During
the
call-?up
for
World
War
II,
for
instance,
1,681,000
men
were
rejected
and
excluded
from
the
draft
for
emotional,
mental,
or
educational
disorders
or
deficiencies.51
Another
500,000
were
subsequently
separated
from
the
Army
during
training
on
psychiatric
or
behavioral
grounds.52
This
recruit
screening
continued
through
Vietnam
and
into
our
current
conflicts.
Thus,
any
direct
comparison
of
incarceration
rates
between
veterans
and
the
civilian
population
is
flawed.
Given
the
military’s
screening,
the
fact
that
veterans
are
incarcerated
at
even
close
to
the
same
rates
as
the
civilian
population
is
alarming
and
is
prima
facie
evidence
that
military
service,
itself,
played
a
role.
The
most
recent
and
definitive
tie
between
combat
trauma
and
criminal
behavior
comes
from
the
military,
itself.
In
2009,
following
a
highly-?publicized
wave
of
homicides
and
other
violent
crimes
committed
by
recently-?returning
combat
soldiers
on
and
around
Fort
Carson,
Colorado,
the
Army
commissioned
a
study
called
the
Epidemiological
Consultation,
or
EPICON,
for
short.53
Epidemiology
is
the
branch
of
medicine
that
seeks
to
study
the
factors
affecting
the
health
and
illness
of
entire
populations.
Most
of
the
time,
epidemiologists
focus
on
infectious
disease,
but
increasingly
the
Army
has
used
its
experts
to
look
at
behavioral
health
issues.
A
team
of
24
physicians
and
PhDs
from
Walter
Reed
Institute
of
Research
descended
on
Ft.
Carson,
studying
soldiers
who
had
acted
out
violently,
looking
? ?for
common
factors.
CHRISTOPHER
J.
MUMOLA,
BUREAU
OF
JUSTICE
STATISTICS,
VETERANS
IN
PRISON
OR
JAIL,
NCJ
178888
(2000),
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/.
51
Marlowe,
supra
note
13,
at
48.
52
Id.
53
U.S.
ARMY
CENTER
FOR
HEALTH
PROMOTION
AND
PREVENTIVE
MEDICINE,
EPIDEMIOLOGIC
CONSULTATION
NO.
14-?HK-?OB1U-?09:
INVESTIGATION
OF
HOMICIDES
AT
FORT
CARSON,
COLORADO
NOVEMBER
2008–MAY
2009,
ES-?1
(2009).
50
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