Military service raises men’s sex-crime imprisonment odds while lowering other crime rates

Evidence

This conditioning, this kind of unofficial training that men experience in the military, is reflected in statistics showing that men who have spent time in the U.S. military are much more likely than their civilian counterparts to be imprisoned for sexual offenses. This is particularly striking because, compared to adult males without military experience, male veterans are much less likely to be imprisoned for other violent crimes, theft, robbery, and drug offenses. Sex crimes are the one exception. There appears to be something about what happens on base and in the barracks that makes it significantly more likely that a man will sexually victimize another person. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 588

Categorization

• QUESTION: The contrast—veterans lower on all crimes but higher on sex offenses—is sharp. What selection effects could also drive this (e.g., the military recruiting those with prior abuse histories, per paragraph 589), beyond the conditioning explanation Vine offers?