Focus On: Armed Forces Charities in the Criminal Justice System

Abstract: The majority of Service personnel make a successful transition to civilian life when their military service ends. For some, the transition from Service to civilian life is challenging and a relatively small number of individuals find themselves in contact with the criminal justice system. This report explores the support available from armed forces charities for such individuals and their families. FiMT has projected the annual cost of ‘poor transition’ in 2020 from criminal justice issues to be in the region of £4.3 million (£4.0 million in prison costs and £0.3 million in criminal offence costs) (FiMT, 2017). The purpose of this report is to hold up an objective mirror to the armed forces charity sector and, for the first time, provide an account of the criminal justice support offered by such charities. To that end DSC devised the following research questions:
- How many armed forces charities support individuals and their families in the criminal justice system?
- How is criminal justice support delivered to beneficiaries?
- What examples of collaboration, evaluation and challenges exist?
This report is intended as a resource for those who work in the armed forces charity sector, along with policymakers, the media, government bodies and interested members of the public.

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