Military veterans in prison are more than twice as likely to have been convicted for sex offenses as non-veteran inmates, says a new study by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics reported by the Associated Press. The study compared the populations of inmates who served in the military and those who did not. Veterans are half as likely to be incarcerated as those without service experience but 23 percent of the veterans in prison were sex offenders, compared with 9 percent of non-veteran inmates. No explanation for the difference was offered.
The incarceration rate for veterans is 630 per 100,000, compared with 1,390 per 100,000 for non-veterans. The study found that veterans in prison were older, more educated, more likely to have been married and more likely than non-veterans to be incarcerated for violent crimes or offenses against women or children. Many of the findings can be explained by demographics, said Colby College sociologist Alec Campbell.
Link: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-05-20-vets-sex-crimes_N.htm