Ex-military Personnel in the Criminal Justice System: A Cross-sectional Study

Abstract: The aim of this article is to estimate the proportion of Regular veterans in England and Wales who are in prison or supervised by a Probation Trust. A cross-sectional data linkage approach was taken, matching a database of Service leavers with prison and probation data. The proportion of those in the criminal justice system who are veterans was estimated to be 3.4%. For men aged 18–54 years, the proportion of the general population in prison was 43% (95% CI: 37%–49%) higher than the proportion of veterans in prison. There is no evidence that veterans are over-represented in the criminal justice system.