According to new research conducted in the UK, one in every 8 soldiers who returns home from combat has been involved in a domestic violence incident.

The research was conducted by the King's Center for Military Health Research, and involved 13,000 British army veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. The researchers say that they have found an association between combat, and violence levels at home. Often, the domestic violence is targeted against spouses.

According to the researchers, in approximately a third of the cases, the victims were family members, including wives, or girlfriends. There's a two-fold link between being in combat, and a risk of being involved in domestic violence incidents after returning from deployment.

Moreover, the researchers found that the incidents of violence are much more likely to increase depending on the number of deployments. Veterans who had been on more than one deployment were found to be more likely to report violent behavior.

The British Ministry of Defense however has denied the findings of the research. According to the Ministry Of Defense, there is no evidence to indicate that veterans returning from combat have a much higher domestic violence problem, compared to the civilian community. The Ministry of Defense also states that the military does provide support to victims of violence in the military, as well as a wide range of resources for help and information to these individuals.

In the UK, these studies are likely to be taken especially seriously, because they come soon after a case involving a 24-year-old ex-soldier, who was recently jailed for gunning down his landlady. The soldier had just returned from serving in Afghanistan, and had been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder. He killed his 52-year-old landlady at her home. According to reports, his post traumatic stress disorder was not diagnosed in time or treated properly.