Stolen Valor: the People Who Commit Military Impersonation
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STOLEN VALOR: THE PEOPLE WHO COMMIT MILITARY IMPERSONATION _____________ A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology Sam Houston State University _____________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy _____________ by Elishewah Rosa Weisz December, 2016 STOLEN VALOR: THE PEOPLE WHO COMMIT MILITARY IMPERSONATION by Elishewah Rosa Weisz ______________ APPROVED: Mitchel P. Roth, PhD Dissertation Director Steven Cuvelier, PhD Committee Member Willard Oliver, PhD Committee Member Phillip Lyons, PhD Dean, College of Criminal Justice DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to my awesome husband, Marcelino Avelar II, to all the other real veterans for their service and the people fighting for the honor of those have served. And to my grandfather, Samu Zwi Weisz, who leads me on my path of knowledge. iii ABSTRACT Weisz, Elishewah Rosa, Stolen Valor: The people who commit military impersonation. Doctor of Philosophy (Criminal Justice), December, 2016, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, Texas. Stolen valor, or falsely claiming to have performed military service or claiming to have served in a different capacity than actually occurred, seems to be a growing problem in society. With the five branches (Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and Air Force), and large amount of awards, the United States has created a large amount of confusion when it comes to military service. Even so, very little is known about the people who commit stolen valor and the financial crimes they commit. The current study is meant to lay a foundation for future research on the topic. The current study created a database from publically available online data on stolen valor offenders. The website used for analysis contained the cases of 68 people who have been outed for having falsified their military history. To analyze their stories content analysis was used. The current study’s findings suggest, although the results are not generalizable, that many people who have served in the military may falsify their military history. Furthermore, many of the offenders have a criminal record detailing their generalist criminal tendencies. There are many more characteristics which were found to be relevant to these offenders. As this is the first scholarly study on the topic, not including legal papers pertaining to the Stolen Valor Act of 2005, many more questions need answering. Better and more data can allow for better policy to be created. Even so, there are some recommendation based on the current sample. First more information needs to be available to the general public concerning the military awards and regulations. Also, a iv database containing basic data of people who have served should be available to the public so if a person makes a claim of military service, it can be checked in a decent time frame. Likewise, certain disorders seem to be used more often than other disorders to gain financial benefits. Better recognition of these disorders and research into them may be necessary to decrease the amount of fraud committed. KEY WORDS: Stolen valor, Fraud, Military impersonation v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to take this opportunity to thank a few people who have been instrumental in the development and whose assistance has been invaluable in the creation of this dissertation. First, my husband, Marcelino Avelar II, without whom this dissertation would not have happened. His military knowledge has made this dissertation a great deal more informative than it would have been without him. His encouragement was unwavering throughout the whole long process of brainstorming about a topic, literature research, data collection and analysis, and the final write up. Secondly, I would also like to thank my dissertation committee members. Dr. Mitchel P. Roth who chaired the committee, and gave me many research opportunities, as well as teaching opportunities. Dr. Steven Cuvelier for his guidance on this project. Dr. Willard Oliver for his statistical assistance and knowledge as well as his military knowledge. Additionally, I would like to thank Dr. Yudu Li for the many scholarly arguments we shared. Dr. Rolando del Carmen has been of great assistance with his legal knowledge and his encouragement for legal scholarship. As well as my parents who supported me in my choice to pursue a doctoral degree. Lastly, the people behind the Guardian of Valor website. This website made it much easier to collect data on people who impersonate military personnel. Their hard work to restore military honor which was taken by these impersonators is admirable. vi PREFACE This dissertation concerns stolen valor, better known as military impersonation. When I started thinking about a dissertation topic, I had a hard time coming up with an interesting topic. That was until my husband, a Marine Corps veteran, showed me video clips and articles about military impersonators. This led to questions, many, many questions about why people lie or embellish their military service. During the literature search it became clear that there was very little academic data available concerning this topic. The little that was available was of a legal nature and did not answer many questions about this group of people. The current study was an attempt to increase the scholarly knowledge about this group of people. This knowledge is important as more and more often the Veterans Affairs, state government, charities, and private citizens seem to be the victims of military impersonators and the fraud they commit. To curtail this behavior, statutes have been enacted, which in some cases have had implications for the impersonators’ constitutional rights. A need for more knowledge is warranted as there is so little, while the acts cause so much pain to so many people. At the same time statutes have been enacted without knowledge of the basic characteristics of these deceivers. This dissertation is a study of a small sample of military impersonators and hopes to shed some light on the topic. Keep in mind though that this sample is not a random sample and therefore the findings cannot be generalized to the whole military impersonator population. Even so, much information can be gained from the current study. Please enjoy the long journey through this dissertation going from history and the awards system, through the current legal consequences for committing stolen valor in the United States, and through the vii psychological potential explanations for the behavior. Then comes the current study, the methods section, the findings, and the discussion section which includes policy implications and recommendations. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DEDICATION ................................................................................................................... iii ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... vi PREFACE ......................................................................................................................... vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................... ix LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ xii LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................... xiii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION & BACKGROUND ................................................................. 1 Background ............................................................................................................. 2 Military awards system history ............................................................................... 8 II LEGAL ASPECTS OF IMPERSONATING MILITARY PERSONNEL ........... 15 Federal laws .......................................................................................................... 17 State Laws ............................................................................................................. 22 The use of military service as a defense in crime ................................................. 31 III REASONS FOR MILITARY IMPERSONATION, THE SOCIETAL RESPONSE, AND THE SYSTEM ...................................................................... 33 Psychological explanations ................................................................................... 35 Fraud ..................................................................................................................... 49 Societal Response to Military Impersonation ....................................................... 57 The System............................................................................................................ 62 ix IV METHODS ........................................................................................................... 70 The current study .................................................................................................. 70 Research questions ................................................................................................ 70 Analytic strategy and sample ................................................................................ 71 V FINDINGS ...........................................................................................................