SBAND Seminar Materials 2013 Free Ethics: Echoes of War The Combat Veteran | Page 2

I.

Overview1

More
 than
 2.6
 million
 Americans
 have
 now
 served
 in
 Iraq
 or
 Afghanistan.2
 Only

about
 half
 of
 these
 troops,
 it
 found,
 had
 reported
 or
 sought
 help
 for
 their
 condition.
  Untreated,
 many
 of
 these
 psychologically
 injured
 veterans
 are
 acting
 out
 in
 reckless,
 self-­? destructive
 and,
 sometimes,
 violent
 ways
 that
 bring
 them
 into
 contact
 with
 the
 criminal
  justice
 system.

 History
 tells
 us
 that
 as
 the
 wars
 in
 Iraq
 and
 Afghanistan
 wind
 down,
 the
  numbers
 of
 troubled
 veterans
 flooding
 into
 our
 criminal
 courts
 will
 swell.

 Our
 criminal
  justice
 system
 must
 be
 better
 prepared
 than
 previous
 generations.

A. PTSD’s
 Emerging
 History

Emerging
 historical
 research
 reveals
 a
 pattern
 of
 traumatized
 combat
 veterans
  surfacing
 in
 the
 criminal
 justice
 system
 following
 every
 major
 American
 conflict.

 Though
  many
 people
 at
 the
 time
 were
 are
 aware
 of
 the
 problem,
 open
 discussion
 was
 considered
  taboo
 and
 substantial
 efforts
 were
 often
 made
 to
 sweep
 the
 issue
 under
 the
 rug.

  Unfortunately,
 veterans
 of
 past
 conflicts
 were
 sometimes
 treated
 quite
 harshly
  when
 their
 psychological
 injuries
 led
 them
 into
 criminal
 behavior.

 This
 was
 particularly
  true
 in
 the
 wake
 of
 Vietnam
 when
 hundreds
 of
 thousands
 of
 psychologically
 injured
  veterans
 returned
 home
 to
 a
 largely
 hostile
 American
 public
 who
 had
 come
 to
 blame
 them
  for
 an
 unpopular
 war.

 These
 veterans
 were
 often
 stigmatized
 and
 literally
 discarded
 when
  their
 psychological
 injuries
 led
 to
 criminal
 behavior.

 Even
 now,
 more
 than
 30
 years
 after
  that
 war,
 hundreds
 of
 thousands
 of
 Vietnam
 veterans
 remain
 incarcerated,
 homeless,
  and/or
 chemically
 addicted
 across
 America.

 Our
 society
 has
 paid
 a
 staggering
 price
 for
 our
  abandonment
 of
 the
 Vietnam
 generation.

 The
 side
 effects
 of
 their
 untreated
 trauma
 have
  cost
 us
 in
 many
 unforeseen
 ways.

 Countless
 families
 have
 been
 destroyed,
 jobs
 lost,
 and
  taxpayer
 dollars
 spent
 on
 treatment
 that
 came
 too
 late
 to
 make
 a
 difference
 for
 many.

 This
  is
 particularly
 tragic
 in
 the
 criminal
 justice
 context
 where
 early
 criminal
 charges
 could
 have

These
 CLE/CEU
 materials
 provide
 a
 brief
 overview
 of
 the
 unique
 problems
 facing
 criminally-­?involved
 veterans
  with
 service-­?related
 disorders
 and
 how
 the
 mental
 health
 and
 criminal
 justice
 systems
 can
 more
 effectively
 deal
  with
 them.

 For
 a
 much
 more
 thorough
 treatment
 of
 these
 issues,
 see
 the
 ATTORNEY’S
 GUIDE
 TO
 DEFENDING
 VETERANS
 IN
  CRIMINAL
 COURT
 (Brockton
 D.
 Hunter
 ed.,
 2013).

  2 INSTITUTE
 OF
 MEDICINE
 OF
 THE
 NATIONAL
 ACADEMIES,
 TREATMENT
 FOR
 POSTTRAUMATIC
 STRESS
 DISORDER
 IN
 MILITARY
 AND
  VETERAN
 POPULATIONS:
 INITIAL
 ASSESSMENT,
 39
 (2012).
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