Presentation
Prevalence and correlates of violent behavior by military service members
American Public Health Association
(2013)
Abstract
Recent news articles have described an epidemic of veterans in trouble with the law, often for violent crimes. Yet behind the headlines, little research has been conducted to examine how common problems controlling violent behavior actually are among military service members or veterans. We conducted a cross-sectional study with a representive sample of current US Reserve and National Guard service members (n = 1,293) to estimate the prevalence of self-reported problems controlling violent behavior in the past year and examine the correlates of these problems. Only 1.6% of women and 3.0% of men reported that they had difficulty controlling violent behavior. We found a higher prevalence of problems with violence among reservists with a high school education or less (6.4%) than among those with a college education (1.6%). We found that individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were more likely to report problems with violence: 17% of individuals with PTSD stemming from deployment-related events reported problems with controlling violent behavior, compared to only 2% of individuals without PTSD. We discuss these findings and their implications for public health.
Keywords
- Veterans,
- War
Publication Date
November 5, 2013
Location
Boston, MA
Citation Information
Miranda E Worthen, Sujit D. Rathod, Gregory Cohen, Robert Ursano, et al.. "Prevalence and correlates of violent behavior by military service members" American Public Health Association (2013) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/miranda_worthen/40/