No life of crime . . . and other stories

Violent crime

It’s easy to imagine that young men who experience combat in a military role might become desensitised to violence and, after return to civilian life, more likely to commit violent acts. But a Swedish study finds no evidence to support the idea (Int J Epidemiol doi:10.1093/ije/dyz084). Rates of conviction for violent crime were no higher in veterans who had been deployed to Afghanistan than in veterans who hadn’t been deployed. Mind you, there was no information on individual levels of combat exposure and it’s possible that many of the deployed veterans, who were predominantly stationed in northern Afghanistan, didn’t …