Editing Serial killer (section)

====Military====
[[File:Charles Ng.jpg|thumb|150px|A dishonorably discharged Marine, [[Charles Ng]] participated in the kidnapping, sadistic torture, rape, and murder of numerous victims.]]

The "military theory" has been proposed as an explanation for why serial murderers kill, as some serial murderers have served in the military or related fields. According to Castle and Hensley, 7% of the serial killers studied had military experience.<ref>{{harvnb|Castle|Hensley|2002|pp=453–465}}, {{harvnb|DeFronzo|Prochnow|2004|pp=104–108}}</ref> This figure may be a proportional under-representation when compared to the number of military veterans in a nation's total population. For example, according to the United States census for the year 2000, military veterans comprised 12.7% of the U.S. population;<ref>{{Cite web|last1= Richardson |first1= Christy |last2= Waldrop |first2= Judith |title= Veterans: 2000 |url= https://www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/c2kbr-22.pdf |publisher= U.S. Census Bureau |year= 2003 |access-date= July 13, 2011 |page= 5 |journal=  |archive-date= August 25, 2011 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110825194126/http://www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/c2kbr-22.pdf |url-status= live }}</ref> in England, it was estimated in 2007 that military veterans comprised 9.1% of the population.{{sfn|Woodhead|Sloggett|Bray|Bradbury|2009|pp=50–54}} Though by contrast, about 2.5% of the population of Canada in 2006 consisted of military veterans.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/98-187-x/4151287-eng.htm#table3|title=Estimated population of Canada, 1605 to present|date=July 6, 2009|publisher=Statistics Canada|access-date=May 23, 2011|archive-date=June 30, 2019|archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20190630114202/https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/98-187-x/4151287-eng.htm#table3|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=The Veteran Population and the People We Serve |url=http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/sub.cfm?source=department%2Freports%2Ffiveyearplan03%2Fplan03_population |year=2003 |work=Veterans Affairs Canada |access-date=July 13, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121001151839/http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/sub.cfm?source=department%2Freports%2Ffiveyearplan03%2Fplan03_population |archive-date=October 1, 2012 }}</ref>

There are two theories that can be used to study the correlation between serial killing and military training: ''Applied learning theory'' states that serial killing can be learned. The military is training for higher kill rates from servicemen while training the soldiers to be desensitized to taking a human life.{{sfn|Castle|Hensley|2002}} ''Social learning theory'' can be used when soldiers get praised and accommodated for killing. They learn or believe that they learn, that it is acceptable to kill because they were praised for it in the military. Serial killers want accreditation for the work that they have done.<ref name="Exploring">{{cite web |url=http://www.deviantcrimes.com/serialmurder_sociallearning.htm |title=Social Learning and Serial Murder |website=www.deviantcrimes.com |access-date=15 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090104221523/http://www.deviantcrimes.com/serialmurder_sociallearning.htm |archive-date=4 January 2009 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

In both military and serial killing, the offender or the soldier may become desensitized to killing as well as compartmentalized; the soldiers do not see enemy personnel as "human" and neither do serial killers see their victims as humans.{{sfn|Hamamoto|2002|pp=105–120}} The theories do not imply that military institutions make a deliberate effort to produce serial killers; to the contrary, all military personnel are trained to recognize when, where, and against whom it is appropriate to use deadly force, which starts with the basic ''[[Laws of war|Law of Land Warfare]]'', taught during the [[Recruit training|initial training phase]], and may include more stringent policies for military personnel in law enforcement or security.{{sfn|Atwood|1992}}