Assessing the Efficacy of Moral Waiver Policies

Moral character screening is the process by which the US Military Services appraise the pre-service behavior of applicants that may have an impact on their eligibility for enlistment (e.g., criminal records, drug and alcohol abuse). While some behaviors are so minor that they are not considered an impediment, others necessitate a waiver to be approved before a recruit's entry into service, and more serious offenses may preclude enlistment all together. Waiver policies differ across Services, but a common set of codes is used to document authorized waivers on recruiting documents used throughout the Department of Defense (DoD).

One aspect of military performance shown to relate to moral character is attrition, or separation prior to completing an enlistment obligation. Although attrition is but one aspect of military performance, it is a costly one. The Government Accountability Office estimated that it requires $38,000 to recruit, train, and equip a replacement for each person who leaves service prematurely. Previous research has found that individuals entering service with moral character waivers exhibit higher rates of attrition than individuals entering without such waivers, and those with a record of past criminal behavior (regardless of waiver status) are significantly less likely to complete their initial term of service.

In 1999, HumRRO was contracted to conduct an evaluation of moral character waiver (MCW) policy. The multi-year project collected information on the pre-service behavior and MCW status of accessions to the military during the summer of 2001. The study examined the relationship of these variables with the 3-month duty status of these recruits (still-in-service vs. separated). Subsequently, DoD commissioned a follow-on study in which HumRRO assessed the efficacy of MCW policy relative to 18-month attrition (differentiating between attrition for reasons linked to moral character and other forms of attrition), as well as incidents of in-service deviant behavior (e.g., law offenses, courts-martial).

HumRRO made specific recommendations regarding the refinement of Service waiver processes using concrete data to demonstrate how (a) loosening certain standards would allow for the admission of individuals who, despite past negative behaviors, had a good chance of becoming productive Servicemembers; and (b) tightening other standards could effectively lower attrition rates by barring those who demonstrated behaviors that were linked to an increased likelihood of attrition or in-service deviance. In addition, HumRRO provided recommendations with regard to a DoD-wide set of moral character enlistment benchmarks.