“I Was There” and “It Happened to Me”: An Exploratory Study of Killing as an Adventure Narrative in the Accounts of Soldiers and Police Officers

• Author: Katherine T. Baggaley,Phillip C. Shon,Olga Marques
• DOI: 10.1177/0095327X18763598
• Published date: 01 July 2019
• Date: 01 July 2019
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

“I Was There” and

“It Happened to Me”:

An Exploratory Study of

Killing as an Adventure

Narrative in the Accounts of

Soldiers and Police Officers

Katherine T. Baggaley

1

, Phillip C. Shon

1

and Olga Marques

1

Abstract

Various theoretical frameworks have been applied in an attempt to understand the

phenomenon of killing. While previous studies have examined killing as an outcome-

oriented measure, few have explored killing as a narrative. Using letters written by

soldiers, police officers, and security professionals found in the magazine Soldier of

Fortune, this study examines the reported behaviors that occur during the killing

process and argues that the process of killing is best understood as an adventure

narrative. Applicability of findings to other homicides is discussed.

Keywords

military culture, policing, soldiers, pleasure, killing

1

Faculty of Social Scienc e and Humanities, Unive rsity of Ontario Institut e of Technology, Oshawa,

Ontario, Canada

Corresponding Author:

Phillip C. Shon, Faculty of Social Science and Humanities, University of Ontario Institute of Technology,

Oshawa, Ontario, Canada L1H 7K4.

Email: phillip.shon@uoit.ca

Armed Forces & Society

2019, Vol. 45(3) 511-531

ªThe Author(s) 2018

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DOI: 10.1177/0095327X18763598

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Much scholarly attention has been directed toward illegal forms of killing. Research

on killing has been primarily directed toward deaths that are a result of collective and

interpersonal conflict (Leonard & Leonard, 2003), specifically analyzing the differ-

ent motivations, behaviors, and characteristics of homicides and their offenders (Fox

& Levin, 2015). However, a limited amount of work exists on the social processes

involved in killing carried out by those who are authorized to do so. Soldiers, police

officers, and security professionals are sometimes required to use lethal force in the

performance of their duty. While scholars have focused their analysis on the pre-

combat aspects of military training and conditioning (Grossman, 2009) or the post-

combat trauma that soldiers/police officers experience (Rosenthal & Erickson,

2013), there is a dearth of research pertaining to the in situ aspects of killing during

war or law enforcement. This article examines how the act of killing is socially

organized as an adventure narrative.

Understanding the social processes involved in killing is important because they

may differ according to the intent and purpose of the act. For example, legitimate

killings (e.g., defense, war) may differ from illegitimate ones (e.g., homicide) in

offense characteristics as well as how the act is managed. Although prior works have

addressed various risk factors such as al cohol/drug consumption, availabilit y of

guns, and neighborhood composition (DiCatalado & Everett, 2008) that are relevant

to understanding the actions of homicide offenders, they have neglected to consider

the actual behaviors that occur and the social processes involved in their narration as

warrantable object of analysis (Bourke, 2000). This uneven focus on predictor vari-

ables of homicide offenders has left a shortcoming in the literature regarding in situ

aspects of killing as a socially organized process.

Understanding the retrospective accounts of behaviors that occur during the act of

killing is significant for another reason. The letters published in the Soldier of

Fortune (SOF) constitute autobiographical narratives that embody the conventions

of storytelling centered on formulaic plot structures and sequence of events, such as

orientation, inciting action, and evaluation (Presser, 2009), as well as the cultural

and structural features of their production that warrant their study as a form of social

action and practice (DeGloma, 2010; Ewick & Silbey, 1995). The narratives written

by soldiers, police, and other professional “adventurers” who share a common social

identity and social memory (Davis, 2000; Zerubavel, 2003) constitute moral projects

that the participants use to make sense of their traumatic experience of killing

another person as well as a way of advancing their moral stances or a common

cause (DeGloma, 2014). Killing as a social and situated action that is narrated as a

meaning-making experience warrants further analysis of how killing and its telling

might be organized as a social activity.

To understand the socially organized aspects of killing, we conceptualize

killing through an interactionist framework by examining the patterns in the

written experiences of war combatants, police officers, and civilians who have

killed. Within this article, a combatant is defined as an individual who partici-

pates in war as a regular or irregular fighter, a mercenary, or a guerilla. We use

512 Armed Forces & Society 45(3)