Draft Evasion - Wikipedia

 

Young people have engaged in a wide variety of draft evasion practices around the world, some of which date back thousands of years.[10][4] This section aims to delineate a representative sampling of draft evasion practices and support activities as identified by scholars and journalists. Examples of many of these practices and activities can be found in the section on draft evasion in the nations of the world, further down this page.

Draft avoidance

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One type of draft avoidance consists of attempts to follow the letter and spirit of the draft laws in order to obtain a legally valid draft deferment or exemption.[4][3] Sometimes these deferments and exemptions are prompted by political considerations.[11] Another type consists of attempts to circumvent, manipulate, or surreptitiously violate the substance or spirit of the draft laws in order to obtain a deferment or exemption.[12][13] Nearly all attempts at draft avoidance are private and unpublicized.[14][15] Examples include:

By adhering to the law

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• Claiming conscientious objector status on the basis of sincerely held religious or ethical beliefs.[16][17][nb 1]
• Claiming a student deferment, when one is in school primarily in order to study and learn.[3][19][11][12]
• Claiming a medical or psychological problem, if the purported health issue is genuine and serious.[4][3]
• Claiming to be homosexual, when one is truly so and the military excludes homosexuals.[20]
• Claiming economic hardship, if the hardship is genuine and the law recognizes such a claim.[21]
• Holding a job in what the government considers to be an essential civilian occupation.[4][3]
• Purchasing exemptions from military service, in nations where such payments are permitted.[22]
• Not being chosen in a draft lottery, where lotteries determine the order of call to military service;[14] or not being in a certain age group, where age determines the order of call.[4]
• Not being able to afford armor or other equipment, in polities where conscripts were required to provide their own.[4]

By circumventing the law

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• Obtaining conscientious objector status by professing insincere religious or ethical beliefs.[12][nb 1]
• Obtaining a student deferment, if the student wishes to attend or remain in school largely to avoid the draft.[23]
• Claiming a medical or psychological problem, if the purported problem is feigned, overstated, or self-inflicted.[4][3][12][14]
• Finding a doctor who would certify a healthy draft-age person as medically unfit, either willingly or for pay.[24]
• Deliberately self-injuring oneself.[25]
• Becoming pregnant primarily in order to evade the draft, in nations where women who are not mothers are drafted.[26]
• Falsely claiming to be homosexual, where the military excludes homosexuals.[12]
• Deliberately failing one's military-related intelligence tests.[12]
• Claiming economic hardship, if the purported hardship is overstated.[27]
• Having someone exert personal influence on an officer in charge of the conscription process.[4]
• Successfully bribing an officer in charge of the conscription process.[23][24]

Draft resistance

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Draft evasion that involves overt lawbreaking or that communicates conscious or organized resistance to government policy is sometimes referred to as draft resistance.[15][29][30] Examples include:

Actions by resisters

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• Declining to register for the draft, in nations where that is required by law.[16][23]
• Declining to report for one's draft-related physical examination, or for military induction or call-up, in nations where these are required by law.[31][6]
• Participating in draft card burnings or turn-ins.[16][32]
• Living "underground" (e.g., living with false identification papers) and working at an unreported job after being indicted for draft evasion.[16]
• Traveling or emigrating to another country, rather than submitting to induction or to trial.[4][33]
• Going to jail, rather than submitting to induction or to alternative government service.[34][35]
• Shooting and/or killing draft officers and civil authorities.[36]

Actions by supporters or resisters

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• Organizing or participating in a peaceful street assembly or demonstration against the draft.[16]
• Publicly encouraging, aiding, or abetting draft evaders.[16]
• Deliberately disrupting a military draft agency's processes or procedures.[12][38]
• Destroying a military draft agency's records.[16][39][40]
• Organizing or participating in a riot against the draft.[37][41]
• Building an anti-war movement that treats draft resistance as a vital and integral part of it.[15][29]