Moral Injury from the Battlefield to Remote Warfare and Online Child Sex Crime Investigation

Speaker: Peter Lee, Professor of Applied Ethics, is Co-Director of the University of Portsmouth Centre for Defence, Risk and Resilience. 

This online seminar traced the concept of moral injury from its military origins into two contemporary settings: RAF Reaper drone operations and police online child sex crime investigation. These cases show moral injury as a distinct form of occupational harm requiring explicit recognition and support. 

What is Moral Injury? 

The term emerged from clinical work with US military veterans and is defined by Nash and colleagues (2010) as “changes in biological, psychological, social, or spiritual functioning resulting from witnessing or perpetrating acts or failures to act that transgress deeply held, communally shared moral beliefs and expectations”. 

Examples from the military include the accidental killing, or the witnessing of deliberate killing, of civilians or friendly forces through poor communication, intelligence, or decision-making. 

Moral injury can result in significant psychological distress. Symptoms of moral injury include guilt, frustration, depression, self-harm, shame, loss of spirituality/religiosity, or a sense of rejection. 

There is an institutional component: the most harmful element is not only the violation of core personal moral values but also feeling betrayed by superiors or an institution to which you have devoted your life. 

Individuals with a protective instinct (especially common in those drawn to military or public service careers), are particularly vulnerable to moral injury in circumstances in which they are unable to exercise this instinct to protect. E.g., emergency service personnel unable to intervene to rescue victims. 

To read the full summary of this seminar, download the readout on this page.