NCJ Number
147471
Journal
Journal of Interpersonal Violence Volume: 9 Issue: 1 Dated: (March 1994) Pages: 109-116
Date Published
1994
Length
8 pages
Annotation
Crime statistics were collected from the FBI Uniform Crime Reports during the period between 1980 and 1990, when the U.S. conducted military strikes against Grenada, Libya, Iranian ships and oil platforms, and Panama, to test the hypothesis that war affects violent postwar behavior.
Abstract
The results show an upward trend in the combined rates of murder, rape, and aggravated assault greater than that of the previous year after each of the four military episodes but never after a period in which no military action was taken. The findings support the hypothesis that societies experience increased civil violence after participating in wars and also uphold a legitimation of violence model. According to this research, other factors to which the rising crime rate is attributed -- drugs, illegal weapons, the attrition of family values, and violence on television -- fail to match the patterns observed in the rate of violence. The authors maintain that the lack of a similar increase in violence following the Persian Gulf War is due to the fact that that conflict was not viewed as an absolute success by the American public. Yet this example also upholds the legitimation of violence model. 2 tables and 7 references