Assessing and addressing domestic abuse by Ex-armed service personnel

DOI10.1177/0264550518768401
Published date01 June 2018
Date01 June 2018
Subject MatterArticles
PRB768401 201..218
Article
The Journal of Community and Criminal Justice
Probation Journal
Assessing and
2018, Vol. 65(2) 201–218
ª The Author(s) 2018
addressing domestic
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DOI: 10.1177/0264550518768401
abuse by Ex-armed
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service personnel
Iolo Madoc-Jones , Nikki Lloyd-Jones, Emyr Owen,
and Caroline Gorden
Glyndwr University, UK
Abstract
In the context that separate peer-led services are increasingly being developed to meet
the needs of Ex-armed service personnel (Ex-asp) in the criminal justice system, we
explore whether such services should also be developed to address any tendencies
towards domestic abuse. Based on interviews with 12 imprisoned Ex-asp and 10
service-affiliated informants working with them, we found domestic abuse is not
always recognized as a potential problem for Ex-asp. Nonetheless, respondents
suggested that interventions to address the potential for domestic abuse by some Ex-
asp would be useful and legitimate if they are provided by those with service affilia-
tions. Considering our findings, however, we strike a note of caution about separate
and peer-led approaches becoming the default option for working with Ex-asp in the
criminal justice system. We suggest the gendered nature of military culture may be
associated with concerns about the implications of re-engaging Ex-asp with their
military identities. Moreover, being steeped in military culture, we suggest that without
training some service-affiliated staff may be unsighted on important aspects of the role
gender expectancies play in domestic abuse and poorly placed to respond appro-
priately to this type of offending.
Keywords
armed forces, domestic abuse, interventions, engagement, risk assessment
Corresponding Author:
Iolo Madoc-Jones, Glyndwr University, Plas Coch Campus Mold Road, Wrexham LL11 2AW, UK.
Email: jonesim@glyndwr.ac.uk

202
Probation Journal 65(2)
Literature review
Approximately 20,000 personnel leave the UK Armed Forces annually and most
transition well into civilian life (Defence Analytical Services and Advice, 2010). This
paper focuses on those who do not resettle well and how services might be devel-
oped to meet their needs. Individuals are largely recruited into the armed forces
from particular community groups. The Defence Select Committee (2005) has
suggested that 50 per cent of new army recruits are from a deprived background;
69 per cent come from a broken home and 16 per cent were long-term unemployed
before joining. From the outset, therefore, it may be noted that many individuals
enter the armed forces at a higher risk of involvement in crime. A longstanding
suggestion, however, is that recruits into the armed forces learn to be honest,
dependable and to show integrity as a result of the training they receive (Hakeem,
1946; Goffman, 1960; Gerth and Mills, 1954). Joining the armed forces has been
noted as a potentially protective factor in the development of social bonds and
social control as well as socially and economically valuable practical skills for some
young people (Sampson and Laub, 2005).
Although women are increasingly present in all branches of the armed services,
they account for only 12.7 per cent of officers and 9.4 per cent of other ranks
(House of Commons, 2014). Thus Green et al. (2010) argued that the culture which
prevails in military settings privileges a hegemonic masculinity which prescribes that
men should be tough, risk-taking and dominant. In the US, Hunter (2007) identified
several problematic elements of such a gendered culture including the general
acceptance of violence and anti-social conduct following alcohol use. Heavy
drinking is recognized as a particular problem within the UK Armed Services. One
study found 67 per cent of ex-servicemen, compared to 38 per cent of men in the
general population in the UK, were drinking at a level considered by the World
Health Organization to be harmful to health (Fear et al., 2007).
As Wainwright et al. (2016) pointed out, ‘leaving the armed forces is more than
leaving a place of employment; for many it is a loss of family and a complete way of
life’. In most cases the transition will be facilitated by opportunities to use skills and
capital accumulated during service life. However, a common assertion is that some
armed forces personnel become institutionalized during their service career. Thus
on transitioning out of the military they may be less self-reliant and knowledgeable
about and capable of dealing with stressors associated with normal civilian life.
Most Ex-asp work through the challenges associated with transition into the civilian
field. Some, however, may come to the attention of statutory services if their
capacities for coping are overwhelmed. Research suggests that only between 3 and
7 per cent of the prison population have service links (Treadwell, 2010; Defence
Analytical Services and Advice, 2010; Howard League, 2011; Bray et al., 2013;
HMIP, 2014). Whilst they represent the largest occupational group of people in
prison, MacManus et al. (2013) suggested that male serving and ex-service per-
sonnel are much less likely than similar men in the general population in England
and Wales to have a criminal conviction.

Madoc-Jones et al.
203
Certain groups of recruits and Ex-asp, however, seem to be more at risk of crime
than others. Bouffard (2005) identified those with convictions prior to service life as
being most at risk of pre-discharge offending. In the UK early service leavers (who
leave before completing four years) have been identified as a group that may be
especially vulnerable to criminality on discharge from the army. Those compulsory
discharged for poor conduct are identified as the highest risk (Iverson et al., 2005).
In addition, it has been suggested that some particularities pertain to the profile of
Ex-asp in custody in England and Wales (Howard League, 2011) – namely, that
they are more likely to have been convicted for violent and sexual offences. Thus,
whilst 28.6 per cent of civilian prisoners were in prison for violent offences and 11
per cent for sex offending, this compared to 32.9 per cent and 25 per cent of Ex-
asp. There is no crime of domestic violence in the UK, and so it is unclear whether
domestic abuse is a particular concern amongst Ex-asp. In 2009, however, Napo
(2009) reported on a breakdown of the types of offences in 90 cases involving Ex-
asp and found the most common conviction was for violence in a domestic setting.
Although its applicability to the UK context is unclear, further afield, the bulk of US
research reported higher rates of domestic abuse amongst some serving and ex-
military personnel (Williston et al., 2015; Tasso et al., 2016; Marshall et al., 2005;
Cantos et al., 1994; Cronin, 1995; Griffin and Morgan, 1988; Heyman and
Neidig, 1999).
Studies frequently associate violence against women with expectations of male
dominance. Thus they understand domestic violence through the prism of gender.
From this perspective domestic abuse is understood as perpetrated by men for the
purpose of exercising power and exerting control over women (Dobash and
Dobash, 1979; Overlien, 2013). According to Johnson (1995, 2008, 2011),
however, this gendered scenario is less common than is suggested. Johnson (2011)
distinguished between acts of intimate terrorism, violent resistance and situational
couple violence. Intimate terrorism is a form of domestic abuse that is orientated
towards securing power and control in a relationship. Conversely, violent resistance
is in response to this oppression. Johnson (1995, 2011) suggested that by far the
most common form of domestic abuse is ‘situational couple violence’ which is
roughly gender-symmetric in terms of perpetration and often has its origins in sub-
stance abuse or stress giving rise to communication issues (Johnson, 2011). Regular
long overseas deployment and family separation, stress arising from risk of injury
and death, geographic mobility and residence in foreign countries as well as the
demands of having to adjust to civilian life on leaving the armed forces place strains
on family units of serving and Ex-asp (Finley et al., 2010).
Here it is apposite to note that offending by Ex-asp is sometimes explained by
reference to mental disorder (Phillips, 2014). In 2005, 28.9 per cent of Ex-asp self-
reported as having had a mental health problem, of which depression (48.3%) and
stress (37.9%) were the dominant conditions (Iversen et al., 2005). The King’s
Centre for Mental Health Research, however, conducted a cohort study into the
physical and psychological health of those who took part in the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan. It found that albeit that their military career provided a very specific
context for some presentations, the mental health of Ex-asp was broadly similar to

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Probation Journal 65(2)
that of the general population. Research suggests that around 3 to 4 per cent of
serving soldiers in the UK go on to experience symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress
Disorder (Welsh Government, 2011; Fear et al., 2010). Mental health conditions
might be going unnoticed, but nonetheless, more recently Lyne and Packham
(2014) suggested there is only moderate evidence to indicate that mental health
problems are more typical in Ex-asp in the Criminal Justice System of England and
Wales.
It has been argued that military culture is characterized by strong deference to the
chain of command and encourages protection of colleagues and the ‘unit’ (Marshall
et al., 2005). Thus domestic...

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