ABSTRACT
Military personnel returning from the Second World War were treated less as heroes, as is the common misperception today fuelled by years of Hollywood film portrayals, and rather more as social problems, with aggression and crime high on the list of concerns. The UK has recently withdrawn troops following prolonged conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, conflicts which have led to greater media, political and public scrutiny of the impact of these operations on military personnel involved than in previous periods in British history. This chapter reviews recent estimates of the proportion of the ex-service population who are involved with the criminal justice system (CJS); the growth in support for Veterans in the UK CJS and the drivers for this; whether ex-Armed Forces personnel who offend are different from general population offenders; and, finally, what interventions exist which may help reduce the risk of ex-service personnel entering the CJS and rehabilitate them back into civilian society.
