Deployments, Combat Exposure, and Crime

In the space of four years (2005-2008), 10 soldiers from Fort Carson, Colorado were charged by civilian authorities in connection with 9 murders, and an 11th soldier from Fort Carson committed suicide after killing his wife (Riley and Roeder 2009).  Many of these soldiers had been exposed to intense conflict while serving in Iraq, leading the media and prominent policymakers to question whether the units deployed from Fort Carson had been pushed too far.

Under pressure from the public and policymakers, the U.S. Army responded by conducting a three-month “epidemiological” investigation.  This investigation concluded that the soldiers who had been involved in the murders were especially prone to violent behavior as a result of having been exposed to intense combat (U.S. Army Medical Command 2009, p. ES-3).  Fort Carson responded to the murders and subsequent investigation by developing the Embedded Behavioral Health program (Carabajal 2011). Under this program, teams composed of psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers were tasked with providing psychological counseling to soldiers in the field and evaluating their mental health upon returning home.  The Army is committed to assigning Embedded Behavioral Health teams to all of its combat brigades by 2016 (Collins 2012).

 The current study relies on incident-level files from Colorado Front Range police agencies and troop movements into and out of Fort Carson to estimate the relationship between combat exposure and post-deployment violence.  During the period 2001-2009, four combat brigades and the 3rd Armored Calvary Regiment were stationed at Fort Carson.  These units were repeatedly deployed during the Iraq War, allowing us to measure the effect of arguably exogenous changes in troop levels on violent crime in El Paso County, where Fort Carson is located.  Our results suggest that increases in the number of never-deployed combat units at Fort Carson led to more reports of aggravated assault, murder, and robbery. We also find that increases in the number of never-deployed combat brigades at Fort Carson are associated with more arrests of 18- through 29-year-old males for violent crimes.

 In contrast, estimates of the relationship between the number of previously deployed combat brigades and violent crime are consistently small and statistically insignificant at conventional levels.  Similarly, units that suffered a greater-than-average number of fatalities while on deployment do not appear to have contributed to violent crime and in fact may have served a protective function.  These results raise the possibility that experienced soldiers function as positive role models, instilling discipline and discouraging aggressive behavior.

The Embedded Behavioral Health program was built on the premise that combat exposure contributes to post-deployment violence (Carabajal 2011).  Providing psychological counseling to soldiers in the field through Embedded Behavioral Health teams may ultimately yield benefits.  However, our results suggest that never-deployed soldiers represent a much greater threat to public safety than do soldiers who have been exposed to combat.