Post-army trouble: veterans in the criminal justice system

Abstract

I have spent several years working within the probation service and prison service as a researcher, consultant and mentor for veteran affairs. This paper emerges out of a doctoral project concerned with the investigation into the crimes (in particular of violence) committed by Iraq and Afghanistan veterans post war and conflict, and their experience of punishment in England and Wales. The analysis of the project has motivated and liberated a small but reoccurring idea (that I have coined ‘veteranality’) which asks: how are veterans caught up in the criminal justice system perceived by practitioners and how are those perceptions mobilised into practice?