THE PROBLEM OF DELINQUENT BEHAVIOR OF SERVICEMEN IN FOREIGN PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH

Abstract

The paper presents an analysis of theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of psychological problems associated with combatants who have committed crimes, presented in foreign scientific research. We are talking about military personnel who participated in military operations in the ranks of the armed forces of Great Britain and the United States. The most characteristic factors influencing the criminalization of these individuals are identified. Among such factors are the age of greatest criminal activity of convicts, the presence of criminal experience in performing military duty, the presence of close relatives with an illegal lifestyle, unsettled life after military service, the presence of post-traumatic stress disorder, difficulties in the process of social adaptation, consumption of alcoholic beverages and psychoactive substances. Factors contributing to the commission of crimes by the subjects also included their low level of intelligence. Some of the military personnel under study, after committing illegal criminal acts during their service, served their sentences in penitentiary institutions, and after dismissal they were again sent to military units for further performance of military duty. The period of time from the discharge of veterans from military service until they commit a crime has been determined. It was also revealed that the most typical type of crimes committed by former military personnel are mercenary ones. It has been shown that such persons rarely resort to committing violent crimes, and even less often do they commit crimes against a person’s sexual integrity. Almost all studies note the difficulties and problems of this category of those studied in the processes of their readaptation and psychological rehabilitation after participation in hostilities and discharge from military service.