International Conference of War Veteran Ministers

Veterans Who Commit Crimes Following Combat Service

A Peace and Justice Statement
July 22, 2008

The International Conference of War Veteran Ministers, an organization composed of clergy who served in Viet Nam and other conflicts, by electronic meeting on July 22, 2008, issued the following statement concerning veterans who commit crimes following combat service.

As religious professionals who are veterans of military service in combat, we know personally the effects of traumatic stress--the way in which it affects us immediately; the way it affects us for many years thereafter; the disruptions it makes to our families, our marriages, our jobs, and our ability to contribute to society. Post-traumatic stress, no less than wounds to blood and flesh, is a wound of war and its effects are both life-changing and enduring. As we affirm the importance of personal responsibility as each of us copes with wounds we have received in the service to our country, still, when we see those whose actions after the war have caused suffering and death to others, each of us also affirms, "There, but for the grace of God, go I."

We recognize the losses that others have borne because of the actions of combat veterans unable to cope with traumatic stress. No words of extenuation can heal the wounds that they bear or bring back the lives of loved ones they have lost. Courts have a delicate role to play in balancing the claims to justice of victims and of society when veterans have engaged in harm.

Nevertheless, when post-traumatic stress is a factor in a harmful act, courts must take it into account. This is especially poignant when the post-traumatic stress results from honorable service to one's country. Courts must recognize that post-traumatic stress affects the judgment of the person who has been traumatized, and in some cases judgment may be so affected that the veteran cannot be considered responsible for his actions. Because of enormous individual variability, courts must assess each situation on its own merits, but the decision of a judge or jury in the case of harm done by a combat veteran which does not take knowledgeably into consideration the impact of combat and post-traumatic stress cannot be regarded as a valid decision.

The society that calls its warriors to place themselves in harm's way must take responsibility for healing the wounds of war. We are concerned that many situations that come before the courts would not be there if society, through the institutions it has created in support of veterans, had provided adequate resources for healing. We therefore call upon legislators to ensure that the demands they place on their country's warriors are matched by resources for their healing, and that when, despite these efforts, situations come before the courts, that the courts take a warrior's honorable service and the nature of his or her wounds into consideration in their deliberations.

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