British study: Young soldiers more likely to commit violent crimes

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http://en.europeonline-magazine.eu/british-study-young-soldiers-more-likely-to-commit-violent-crimes_270424.html

British study: Young soldiers more likely to commit violent crimes
By our dpa-correspondent and Europe Online

London (dpa) - Young male soldiers who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan are more likely to commit violence offences than their older or civilian counterparts, a British study published Friday said.

In the largest study of its kind to date, researchers for the Lancet medical journal interviewed almost 14,000 British servicemen and women and examined their criminal records.

The most significant finding was that 20.6 per cent of male soldiers aged under 30 had been convicted of a violent offence, compared with 6.7 per cent of civilian men in the same age group and 11 per cent of all military men.

Young men involved in direct combat were 53 per cent more likely to commit a violent offence, said the study, which comes ten years after the start of the Iraq war.