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Does the military turn men into criminals? New evidence from Australia’s conscription lotteries

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  • Peter Siminski
  • Simon Ville
  • Alexander Paull

Abstract

In this paper, we estimate the effect of military service on the perpetration of crime. Several hypothesized links exist between service and crime, but recent quasi-experimental studies on this subject have produced mixed results. Our contribution to this literature uses Australia’s Vietnam era conscription lotteries for identification along with criminal court data from Australia’s three largest states. We find no evidence that military service increases or decreases crime in any category. In our preferred specification, the 95 % confidence interval rules out positive (negative) effects larger than 11 % (10 %) relative to the mean crime rate. Copyright Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016

Suggested Citation

  • Peter Siminski & Simon Ville & Alexander Paull, 2016. "Does the military turn men into criminals? New evidence from Australia’s conscription lotteries," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 29(1), pages 197-218, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jopoec:v:29:y:2016:i:1:p:197-218
    DOI: 10.1007/s00148-014-0537-5
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    Cited by:

    1. Hjalmarsson, Randi & Lindquist, Matthew, 2016. "The Causal Effect of Military Conscription on Crime and the Labor Market," CEPR Discussion Papers 11110, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. Johnston, David W. & Shields, Michael A. & Siminski, Peter, 2016. "Long-term health effects of Vietnam-era military service: A quasi-experiment using Australian conscription lotteries," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 12-26.
    3. Gabriela Ertola Navajas & Paula A. Lopez Villalba & Martin A. Rossi & Antonia Vazquez, 2022. "The Long-Term Effect of Military Conscription on Personality and Beliefs," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 104(1), pages 133-141, March.
    4. Resul Cesur & Joseph J. Sabia & Erdal Tekin, 2020. "Post-9/11 War Deployments Increased Crime among Veterans," NBER Working Papers 27279, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Lyk-Jensen, Stéphanie Vincent, 2018. "Does peacetime military service affect crime? New evidence from Denmark’s conscription lotteries," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 245-262.
    6. M. Amelia Gibbons & Martín A. Rossi, 2022. "Military Conscription, Sexist Attitudes and Intimate Partner Violence," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 89(355), pages 540-563, July.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Crime; Military service; Australia; H56; I12; J45;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H56 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - National Security and War
    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • J45 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Public Sector Labor Markets

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