Gatekeepers of Justice: Law Enforcement Attitudes about and Decisions with Veterans

The occurrence of mental health problems among military veterans is high and has been linked to criminal justice involvement of veterans. The Sequential Intercept Model (SIM) was created and adapted to address the needs of justice-involved veterans (JIVs). The SIM consists of six points that serve as digression points diverting veterans away from the criminal justice system. Prior decision-making research related to JIVs in the SIM focused on intercept three (court system). Given that Law Enforcement Officers (LEOs) are the gatekeepers of the criminal justice process, research examining the unique interactions between LEOs, and veterans is essential. Police decision making research has examined mental illness stigma, perceived dangerousness, blameworthiness, and punitiveness as factors that influence LEOs decisions. A specific gap in the literature is identifying the beliefs LEOs hold towards veterans. The first aim of this study was the development of a measure which assessed LEOs beliefs about military veterans. Secondly, this study extends the current literature through examining the effects of mental illness stigma, blameworthiness, perceived dangerousness, punitiveness on LEOs response (i.e., arrest, warning/informal sanction, transport to psychiatric facility, or no action) to case scenario depicting a military veteran exhibiting symptoms of PTSD and law-breaking behavior. Results indicate LEOs view veterans as exceptional people and as burdensome to their communities. Further, subtle mental illness stigma and veterans as a burden were associated with endorsement of a criminal justice response. However, when the LEOs ultimate response was evaluated, none of the variables were predictive of the decision. Implications regarding LEO trainings regarding veteran-LEO interactions and the contribution of these results to the SIM is also discussed.