Some Criminologic Implications of the Returning Soldier

Abstract

One of the vital problems which will confront the American public more and more at this stage of the war will be the personal and social needs of the returning soldier. Those engaged in the prevention and treatment of delinquency and crime will be especially concerned with those socially, mentally, emotionally, and physically handicapped soldiers who will not be able to adapt themselves to civilian life after the disorganizing and disintegrating experiences which they encountered in the many phases of military activity. Some of these, because of their maladjustments, will come into conflict with the law. The readers of this Journal will be particularly interested in the latter group. In discussing this problem we must not only concern ourselves with the soldier who is to return in the postwar period, but also those who already have returned, those who are rejected or discharged, and those military prisoners now in confinement in guardhouses, rehabilitation centers, United States disciplinary barracks, and Federal penal institutions. Any attempt to formulate a working hypothesis for dealing with this perplexing question would be presumptuous on my part. I can merely survey the problem in the light of my 20 years of work with the mentally ill and my present experience with the Army's rehabilitation program. Most of us will recall the many social ills, particularly during the prohibition era and the depression, which were outgrowths of World War I. Today, as in World War I, our returning soldiers will have to make many new and difficult adjustments to their homes and communities, and also to the many socially disorganizing situations which will exist in the period of reconstruction following the present crisis. In speculating about the criminologic problems incident to post-war readjustment of returning soldiers the following social and psychiatric problems come to mind and seem to warrant our most thoughtful study and diligent effort. Because of the vast number of men, women and youth directly or indirectly participating in the present war effort, the problems of postwar reconstruction will be large in scope, involved, and varied. With the return of seven to ten million soldiers to peacetime activity, it is obvious that countless readjustments will have to be made in order to control those situations and experiences