Crime
Forced military service exacerbates criminal behavior by subjecting vulnerable individuals to harsh and abusive environments. The experience often leaves lasting scars that can drive individuals into further criminality.
Conscription is a Crime Multiplier
Conscription is a crime against humanity. It would be fitting then if it would also fuel other kinds of crimes within society. Still, it is the youth that tends to commit most crime, and maybe locking them up in the military barracks, takes away their opportunities to commit acts of banditry? Or maybe the precious military training somehow inoculates men against crime?
Overall countries with full conscription tend to see higher violent crime rates, particularly homicides, compared to those with no conscription at all. However cross-national comparisons are too blunt to settle causality; the more informative test is to compare conscripted and non-conscripted groups within the same country.
One of the best-studied examples in that context is Argentina. In Argentina, it was peacetime conscription that perpetuated and heightened crime presence in the society. Argentina had a draft lottery system, thus offering an easy comparison between the two at the outset exact groups of young men, one that was drafted and one that evaded that very fate. Participation in conscription increased the likelihood of developing a subsequent criminal record. Military service significantly increased crime rates by 3.96 per cent. The typical crime propensity fuelled by conscription involved crimes against property and white-collar crimes. The effect of conscription on crime is larger for the cohorts starting military service earlier at age 18, so it is likely positively related to the harmful effects of military service on individuals just entering the labour market. Engagement in crime was also far worse for those who served in the Navy and thus did two years of service, rather than one year. Later research also found a significant effect of military service on arms-related crimes. The firearm training received during military service may have reduced the entry costs into the most violent types of crimes.
The negative patterns of conscription on crime are not isolated to South America. The often-idealized Nordic model of conscription, provides interesting insight. In Denmark there is no evidence or indication that peacetime service reduces post-service crime for conscripts in general, or for juvenile offenders in particular. In Sweden, the effects are even more disastrous.
Researchers found that mandatory military service significantly increased both the likelihood of crime and the number of crimes between the ages of 23 and 30. Serving in the military increases the chance of post-service conviction by 6.5%. It is the Swedes from disadvantaged backgrounds who are hit the most with the consequences, especially if they have a criminal history or fathers with no education. Some effects were noticed on men from advantaged backgrounds, but these are mostly traffic offences. The effects on the former group manifest in more serious offences: weapons, violence, theft, and drugs and alcohol. Conscription does temporarily halt those with criminal backgrounds from committing more crimes during service, but once they are out of the army they rebound back to the path of future crime.
Importantly, those results provide conclusive proof that military service cannot ‘straighten out’ troubled young men. Instead, conscription into an army compounds pre-existing behavioural problems. Sweden’s conscription also has one unintentional side effect: that is men with and without high crime rate are confined together for long period of time. Inevitably exposure to peers with a criminal history further increases the chance of post-service crime by an additional three percentage points.
Let’s just be clear about the material facts at hand. Young, innocent men are imprisoned against their will in the military barracks and forced to cohabitate with degenerate peers, who may have a history of jail time and are turned into criminals in the process. Conscription is an utmost demoralizing institution in Western democracies.
Explore the evidence
Collateral Gains from the Military? A Cross-National Analysis of the Armed Forces–Crime Relationship
Conscription and Crime: Evidence from the Argentine Draft Lottery
Conscription and Crime.
Does Peacetime Military Service Affect Crime? New Evidence from Denmark’s Conscription Lotteries
