Does Peacetime Military Service Affect Crime? |
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| Authors: | Karsten Albæk Søren Leth‐Petersen Daniel le Maire Torben Tranæs |
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| Affiliation: | 1. SFI – The Danish National Centre for Social Research, Copenhagen, Denmark;2. University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark |
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| Abstract: | Draft lottery data combined with Danish longitudinal administrative records show that military service can reduce criminal activity for youth offenders. For this group, property crime is reduced, and our results indicate that the effect is unlikely to be the result of incapacitation only. We find no effect of military service on violent crime, on educational attainment, or on employment and earnings, either in the short run or in the long run. These results suggest that military service does not upgrade productive human capital directly, but rather affects criminal activity through other channels (e.g., by changing attitudes to criminal activity). |
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| Keywords: | Draft lottery empirical analysis youth offenders H56 J24 K42 |
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