Conscription is the policy of making service in a country's armed forces compulsory. Countries which practice conscription have varying policies on who is eligible — certain ages are usually targeted, and some countries conscript only males. Sometimes, a country will conscript all people within its chosen parameters, or alternatively, it may conscript people from within those parameters randomly. It may be possible for conscripts to request a position as a non-combatant, or possibly to undertake some other form of service to the state in place of conscription.