The Star Tribune story today about plans for a new veterans' court has some details about why it might be needed, including studies that show that some veterans - particularly those who have served in combat - appear more likely to end up in the criminal justice system.

Brock Hunter, an Army vet and Minneapolis attorney who is part of the working group to establish the court, points out that the numbers are strong:. 1. You factor in that the military already screens out recruits with criminal records, eliminating a large part of the population. 2. The numbers get higher for the smaller percentage of veterans who have seen combat.

There have been crime waves after every major American conflict, including the period between 1865 and 1870 following the Civil War. A study of inmates in 11 prisons in the Upper Midwest, including Minnesota, in the three years after World War II found that 34 percent of all incoming inmates were combat vets. In the 1980s, a VA study of Vietnam vets with PTSD found that half had been arrested at least once, over a third had been arrested two or more times and nearly 12 percent were felons.

If you want to read some pretty good journalism on returning vets and the problems they face in the criminal justice system,, check out this story from The New York Times from 2008.

Or this one from Rolling Stone about Fort Carson where soldiers returning from Iraq have been charged in at least 11 murders.