Does Peacetime Military Service Affect Crime?

Abstract

Abstract:Draft lottery data combined with Danish longitudinal administrative records show that military service can reduce criminal activity for youth offenders. For this group property crime is reduced, and our results indicate that the effect is unlikely to be the result of incapacitation only. We find no effect of military service on violent crime, on educational attainment, or on employment and earnings, either in the short or the long run. These results suggest that military service does not upgrade productive human capital directly, but rather impacts criminal activity through other channels, for example by changing attitudes to criminal activity.

The Long-Term Effect of Military Conscription on Personality and Beliefs

“…Our paper pieces together multiple bodies of literature. Various authors have studied the impact of military conscription on a wide set of outcomes, including criminal behavior (Galiani, Rossi, and Schargrodsky 2011;Siminski, Ville, and Paull 2016;Albaek et al 2017;Lyk-Jensen 2018) and labor market outcomes (Paloyo 2010;Grenet, Hart, and Roberts 2011;Bauer et al 2012;Card and Cardoso 2012). In particular, Galiani, Rossi, and Schargrodsky (2011) exploit the same natural experiment and find that military conscription increases the likelihood of developing a criminal record during adulthood.…”

Post-9/11 War Deployments Increased Crime among Veterans

“…They find no evidence that violent crime was affected by peacetime service in either the short-or long-run. Albaek et al (2017) conclude that because there are no education or labor market effects of military service, the property crime reductions they detect can be explained by other channels, such as changing tastes toward crime.…”

“…Across both types of service, IV estimates show that military service raises the probability of incarceration by 4 percent. Albaek et al (2017) use longitudinal administrative data from Denmark, which link draft records with the educational, labor market, and criminal records of the 1964 birth cohort, to estimate the effect of peacetime military service on crime. The authors find that conscripted peacetime service reduced property crime among youths by 18 percent in the year of military enlistment, and by 10 to 14 percent in each of the subsequent three years.…”

“…Finally, Lyk-Jensen ( 2018) also study the military draft in Denmark using longitudinal administrative data. However, she examines a wider set of birth cohorts (1976 through 1983) than considered in Albaek et al (2017) and finds no evidence that peacetime military service affected property or violent crime.…”

Evaluating the Internal Labor Migration Effects of Compulsory Peacetime Conscription

“…This literature emphasizes subsequent effects on employment, earnings, and occupation (see e.g. Imbens and van der Klaauw 1995;Maurin and Xenogiani 2007;Granier, Joseph, and Joutard 2011;Grenet, Hart, and Roberts 2011;Bauer et al 2012;Card and Cardoso 2012;Hubers and Webbink 2015;Grönqvist and Lindqvist 2016;Torun and Tumen 2016;Albaek et al 2017). A notable exception is Torun (2016), who finds that the expected interruption of civilian life created by military service reduces the labor force participation and employment of male teenagers who are waiting to be called up.…”