Basic Trope: A convicted criminal is given the choice to join the military instead of serving time in prison.
- Straight: Bob is convicted of theft, but is offered the choice of joining the army instead of going to prison. He chooses to join up.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob double-parks and is offered the choice of joining the army on a suicide mission to avoid capital punishment. He joins.
- During an invasion, the military replenishes it's numbers by going to prisons and handing out guns to all of the inmates.
- Downplayed: Bob is convicted of theft, but is offered a job instead of prison to cook meals for the soldiers in the mess hall.
- Justified:
- Bob is a young offender, and the judge feels that the army will help straighten him out (and if nothing else, for a couple of years, he'll be the army's problem and not the judge's).
- The army is desperate for recruits.
- Inverted:
- Bob is discharged from the military and is offered to join a criminal cartel.
- Bob is barred from military service due to his criminal record.
- Subverted: When offered this choice, Bob chooses prison. Cut to Bob being screamed at by Drill Sergeant Nasty.
- Double Subverted: It's just a really strict prison guard or a really burly convict yelling at Bob to intimidate him.
- Parodied:
- Everyone in Bob's training unit ended up in the army this way. Their crimes range from murder to ripping tags off mattresses.
- Bob commits a crime and, when offered the choice between army service and jail time, chooses the army. While in the army, he commits a crime and, when offered the choice between jail time and a discharge, chooses the discharge. Once out of the army, he again commits a crime and, when offered the choice between army service and jail time...
- Bob's choice was one month in minimum-security or five years in a penal legion. Either because Bob is Too Dumb to Live or because all of the inmates in the minimum security prison are soccer fans, Bob picked the penal legion.
- Zig Zagged: Bob for whatever reason likes to commit crimes while on shore leave.
- Averted: Bob is convicted and is never offered the choice to serve.
- Enforced: The author is attempting to show that the setting of the story is a dark, desperate place, and the army is really scraping the bottom of the barrel by now.
- Lampshaded: "Let me guess, you're going to ask me to join your little suicide mission, right?"
- Invoked: Bob's over-protective parents won't let him enlist, so Bob commits a minor crime and chooses to be sentenced to a term of army service in order to get away from them.
- Exploited: Rather than running, Bob turns himself into the cops, figuring that he's just going to spend a single day in jail before this trope comes along.
- Defied: The military decides it needs professional soldiers not some random convict.
- Discussed: "Hey... you Trading Bars for Stripes too?" "Yeah. Wonder how many of us dishonest people are in the army by now." "A lot more than most anyone would be comfortable with, I can tell ya."
- Conversed: "So apparently the protagonist of this show is in the army because he chose it over prison. I don't think recruiting criminals into the army is that bright of an idea." "Depends on the time and place, really. Sometimes you just need everyone you can get."
- Deconstructed:
- It turns out that recruiting criminals into the army really wasn't the best of ideas, and the side that did so starts losing ground, fast.
- The criminals recruited are all people who really should've stayed in prison, ranging from classic Ax-Crazy psychopaths and rapists to run-of-the-mill thugs and murderers. The associated criminal-staffed units quickly devolve into an Army of Thieves and Whores with a penchant for wildly excessive force toward anyone who gets in their way, earning them the antipathy of ally and enemy alike.
- Reconstructed:
- The criminals are recruited into the army, but only as Cannon Fodder - the best they're supposed to do is distract the enemy while professional soldiers do their thing, and maybe survive.
- Even though most recruited criminals aren't reliable, Bob chooses to take advantage of the opportunity and change his ways, performing well in the military and eventually becoming a respected career soldier.
- Convicts doing time for non-violent crimes can apply for dangerous-yet-humanitarian missions (fighting wildfires, rescuing people from a plane crashed in the middle of an area with hostile climate, and so on) in exchange for a reduction in their sentence. Many convicts who wanted out earlier, danger be damned, find out to their surprise that Good Feels Good and reenlist after they served their sentence.
- Implied: Bob is asked by another recruit why he enlisted and he replies that he had no choice.
- Played For Laughs: The criminals-turned-soldiers are all convicted of laughably petty crimes, and are laughably inept at their jobs to boot.
- Played For Drama
- The criminals-turned-soldiers are mostly whatever political prisoners and other innocents the local Dystopia could round up, and are not expected to live past even one battle.
- Hardened murderers are recruited into special death squads to commit brutal war crimes.
You can go back to Trading Bars for Stripes or go to jail. Which will it be, son?
