A Research Agenda for Criminal Justice Involvement Among U.S. Veterans

A substantial proportion of adults in the U.S. criminal justice system are military veterans. Justice-involved veterans are of particular public concern given their service to the country and the high rates of health and social problems in the general veteran population. This article describes the development of a national research agenda for justice-involved veterans.

In the summer of 2022, the VA National Center on Homelessness among Veterans in partnership with the VA Veterans Justice Programs Office convened a national group of subject matter experts and stakeholders across three listening sessions that included 40-63 attendees per session. These sessions were recorded, and transcriptions of all sessions and chats were synthesized to generate a preliminary list of 41 agenda items. The Delphi method involving two rounds of ratings from subject matter experts was used to develop consensus.

The final research agenda consists of 22 items covering five domains: Epidemiology and knowledge of the population, treatment and services, systems and systems interface, methodology and research resources, and policies.

The intent of sharing this research agenda is to spur stakeholders to conduct, collaborate, and support further study in these areas.