Self-esteem of offenders sentenced to the United States Army Retraining Brigade

The Objective of this study was to determine the relationship of the self-esteem of military offenders and (1) the offenses committed by the offenders which were artificially separated into three categories of military status offenses (offenses unique to personnel subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice), military criminal offenses (offenses generally considered criminal throughout this society), and military combination offenses (those which consisted of two or more offenses at least one of which was a status offense and one a criminal offense), and (2) the ethnic affiliation of the offenders which was either black, white, or other-ethnic group. Methods: The methods utilized in this study were: (1) a review of the literature of the symbolic interaction theory of behavior and pertinent research literature relevant to the variables investigated; (2) the administration of a ten-item self-esteem measuring instrument devised by Morris Rosenberg to 151 military offenders sentenced to the United States Army Retraining Brigade, Fort Riley, Kansas; (3) conducting an analysis of the data to determine existing relationships using the chi-square test of significance; and (4) considering all results with a probability of .05 or less as significant. Findings: 1. The self-esteem of military status offenders was not significantly higher than the self-esteem of military criminal offenders. 2. The self-esteem of white military status offenders was not significantly higher than the self-esteem of white military criminal offenders. 3. The self-esteem of non-white military status offenders was not significantly higher than the self-esteem of non-white military criminal offenders. 4. The self-esteem of military offenders who committed a combination of military status and military criminal offenses was not significantly lower than the self-esteem of either military status offenders or military criminal offenders. 5. The self-esteem of white military offenders who committed a combination of military status and military criminal offenses was not significantly lower than the self-esteem of either white military status offenders or military criminal offenders. 6. The self-esteem of non-white military offenders who committed a combination of military status and military criminal offenses was not significantly lower than the self-esteem of either non-white military status offenders or non-white military criminal offenders. 7. There was not a significant difference in self-esteem between white military offenders and non-white military offenders. 8. There was not a significant difference in self-esteem between white military status offenders and non-white military status offenders. 9. There was not a significant difference in self-esteem between white military criminal offenders and non-white military criminal offenders. 10. There was not a significant difference in self-esteem between white military combination offenders and non-white military combination offenders.