Understanding Torture

Author : J. Jeremy Wisnewski
Publisher : Edinburgh University Press
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 43,9 Mb
Release : 2010-09-13
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780748643301

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Understanding Torture by J. Jeremy Wisnewski Pdf

Despite Victor Hugo's 19th-century proclamation that torture no longer exists, we still find it even now, even in those nations that claim to be paradigms of civility. Why is it that torture still exists in a world where it is routinely regarded as immoral? Is it possible to eliminate torture, and if so, how? What exactly does it mean to call something 'torture', and is it always morally reprehensible? Arguments in favour of torture abound, but in this important new book, J. Jeremy Wisnewski examines and explains the moral dimensions of this perennial practice, paying careful attention to what lessons torture can teach us about our own moral psychology. By systematically exposing the weaknesses of the dominant arguments for torture, drawing on resources in both analytic and continental philosophy and relevant empirical literature in psychology, Wisnewski aims to provide an over-arching account of torture: what it is, why it's wrong, and why even the most civilized people can nevertheless engage in it.

Author : John Parry
Publisher : University of Michigan Press
Page : 329 pages
File Size : 48,5 Mb
Release : 2010-02-16
Category : Law
ISBN : 9780472050772

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Understanding Torture by John Parry Pdf

Torture is about dominating the victim for a variety of purposes, including public order; control of racial, ethnic, and religious minorities; and, domination for the sake of domination. This title explains that torture is already a normal part of the state coercive apparatus.

Author : Professor Metin Basoğlu
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 560 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 2017-08-15
Category : Medical
ISBN : 9780199374649

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Torture and Its Definition In International Law by Professor Metin Basoğlu Pdf

This book presents an interdisciplinary approach to definition of torture by bringing together behavioral science and international law perspectives on torture. It is a collaborative effort by a group of prominent scholars of behavioral sciences, international law, human rights, and public health with internationally recognized expertise and authority in their field. It represents a first ever attempt to explore the scientific basis of legal understanding of torture and inform international law on various definitional issues by proposing a sound theory- and empirical-evidence-based psychological formulation of torture. Drawing on scientific evidence from the editor's 30 years of systematic research on torture, it proposes a learning theory formulation of torture based on the concept of helplessness under the control of others and offers an assessment methodology that can reduce the element of subjectivity in legal judgments in individual cases. It also demonstrates how this formulation can help understand the nature and severity of ill-treatments in different contexts, such as domestic violence and adverse conditions of penal confinement. Through a learning theory analysis of "enhanced interrogation techniques," it demonstrates not only why these techniques constitute torture but also how they help us understand the contextual defining characteristic of torture in general. The proposed formulation implies a broader concept of torture than previously understood, provides scientific and moral justification for the evolving trends in international law towards a broader coverage of ill-treatments in contexts beyond official custody and points to new directions of expansion of the concept. With a focus on the concepts of shame and humiliation and their evolutionary origin, the book explains why inhuman or degrading treatments can cause as much pain or suffering as physical torture. Although treatment issues are not covered, the book sheds light on potentially effective treatment approaches by offering important insights into psychology of torture.

Author : Jared Del Rosso
Publisher : Columbia University Press
Page : 297 pages
File Size : 46,7 Mb
Release : 2015-06-09
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780231539494

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Talking About Torture by Jared Del Rosso Pdf

When the photographs depicting torture at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison were released in 2004, U.S. politicians attributed the incident to a few bad apples in the American military, exonerated high-ranking members of the George W. Bush administration, promoted Guantánamo as a model prison, and dismissed the illegality of the CIA's use of "enhanced interrogation." By the end of the Bush administration, members of both major congressional parties had come to denounce enhanced interrogation as torture and argue for the closing of Guantánamo. What initiated this shift? In Talking About Torture, Jared Del Rosso reviews transcripts from congressional hearings and scholarship on denial, torture, and state violence to document this wholesale change in rhetoric and attitude toward the use of torture by the CIA and the U.S. military during the War on Terror. He plots the evolution of the "torture issue" in U.S. politics and its manipulation by politicians to serve various ends. Most important, Talking About Torture integrates into the debate about torture the testimony of those who suffered under American interrogation practices and demonstrates how the conversation continues to influence current counterterrorism policies, such as the reliance on drones.

Author : Christina Ann-Marie DiEdoardo
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Page : 224 pages
File Size : 43,6 Mb
Release : 2020-02-07
Category : Law
ISBN : 9798216156475

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Torture and Enhanced Interrogation by Christina Ann-Marie DiEdoardo Pdf

A comprehensive look at torture, this book examines societal understanding of its use, how we got here, and how it might be regarded in the future. Torture and Enhanced Interrogation: A Reference Handbook begins with an overview of the history of torture, beginning in Ancient Greece and continuing to Guantanamo Bay and beyond. After grounding the reader in the historical fundamentals, the work goes on to examine the key controversies that surround the use of torture, including but not limited to whether it should be used at all as an aid to interrogation or to procure testimony. Then, the book presents the views of several outside contributors with personal experience or special expertise in the area. The book achieves a balance of profiles of those persons and organizations that have played a role in the development of our understanding of torture, a data and documents section, and an annotated bibliography for future research, as well as an event timeline and glossary of key terms. This volume is aims to present facts in as objective a way as possible while providing readers with the resources they need for further study.

Author : Richard Carver,Lisa Handley
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 688 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 2016
Category : Law
ISBN : 9781781383308

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Does Torture Prevention Work? by Richard Carver,Lisa Handley Pdf

In the past three decades, international and regional human rights bodies have developed an ever-lengthening list of measures that states are required to adopt in order to prevent torture. But do any of these mechanisms actually work? This study is the first systematic analysis of the effectiveness of torture prevention. Primary research was conducted in 16 countries, looking at their experience of torture and prevention mechanisms over a 30-year period. Data was analysed using a combination of quantitative and qualitative techniques. Prevention measures do work, although some are much more effective than others. Most important of all are the safeguards that should be applied in the first hours and days after a person is taken into custody. Notification of family and access to an independent lawyer and doctor have a significant impact in reducing torture. The investigation and prosecution of torturers and the creation of independent monitoring bodies are also important in reducing torture. An important caveat to the conclusion that prevention works is that is actual practice in police stations and detention centres that matters - not treaties ratified or laws on the statute book.

Author : Shampa Biswas,Zahi Zalloua
Publisher : University of Washington Press
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 48,5 Mb
Release : 2011-12-01
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780295801810

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Torture by Shampa Biswas,Zahi Zalloua Pdf

The counterterrorism policies following September 11, 2001, brought the definition and legitimacy of torture to the forefront of political, military, and public debates. This timely volume explores the question of torture through multiple lenses by situating it within systems of belief, social networks of power, and ideological worldviews. Individual essays examine the boundaries of what is deemed legitimate political violence for the sake of state security, the immediate and long-term effects of torture on human and social bodies, the visual and artistic representations of torture, how certain people are dehumanized to make it acceptable to torture them, and how we understand complicity in and the ethical boundaries of torture.

Author : Anonim
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 80 pages
File Size : 50,6 Mb
Release : 1998
Category : Legal assistance to refugees
ISBN : MINN:31951P00900859N

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Survivors of Torture by Anonim Pdf

Author : Kristian Williams
Publisher : Microcosm Publishing
Page : 65 pages
File Size : 49,9 Mb
Release : 2014-11-29
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781621060185

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Hurt by Kristian Williams Pdf

Hurt is Portland activist Kristian Williams' collection of articles and interviews on the history, psychology, and current state of torture in democratic societies. Williams, author of Our Enemies in Blue and American Methods: Torture and the Logic of Domination, has pulled together a vast and comprehensive resource on this abominable act. Articles include David Cunningham's “Prisons, Torture, and Imperialism,” a piece on the anarchist perspective taken from comments at the 2008 Anarchist Bookfair in San Francisco, and a great essay on writing about torture, among many others. This sober 64-page document is a heavy piece of work—dark, informative, and oft times harrowing. But it's also about working hard to intact change. As says Williams in the Gyozo Nehez interview, “At the outset, I think it's more important to have a sense of hope, that things can be different and through our actions we can contribute to that change. The joy comes later, from struggle itself as much as from victory.” Hurt is a how-to manual on fighting and understanding torture—a piece of the struggle itself.

Author : Alexander Coil
Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Page : 108 pages
File Size : 50,7 Mb
Release : 2016-08-15
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 1537108387

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Torture by Alexander Coil Pdf

Extraordinary torture and execution methods A must see for anyone curious about this kind of strange middle age cruelness I must admit, although I am somewhat ashamed, these kind of bizarre things are the reason I surf the internet. I hope that people who are about to read this book are as curious and squeamish as I am and as a result of that - no one will get offended. Torture: 50 Real Torture Methods Explained" is a must read & see for anyone who is not offended easily and is curious about subjects beyond what is allowed on TV. This book will unveil 50 photographs or illustrations with execution and torture methods, which are all explained individually below every picture. I really hope this book will show you something you haven't seen before! That's my main goal with this book... Don't pass on this book!

Author : Danielle Celermajer
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 375 pages
File Size : 46,9 Mb
Release : 2018-09-06
Category : Law
ISBN : 9781108470452

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The Prevention of Torture by Danielle Celermajer Pdf

Moving past theoretical critiques of human rights, this book considers how we might translate situational analyses of torture into effective strategies for preventing it.

Author : Melanie Collard
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 218 pages
File Size : 48,9 Mb
Release : 2018-07-11
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781315456119

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Torture as State Crime by Melanie Collard Pdf

Can we understand torture by focusing on the torture chamber or even on the states in which it is practiced, or do we have to consider the wider political context in which it is embedded? This is the central question of this book which explores concepts of state crime for understanding and responding to the indirect use of torture by external nation states. Drawing on the cooperation between France and Argentina in Argentina's Dirty War, this book explores the utility of the concept of state crime for understanding and responding to the indirect use of torture by external nation states with a detailed examination of the exportation of torture techniques and training expertise as complicity in torture. Discussing the institutionalisation of torture in its international structural context, this book focuses on examining three alleged manifestations of the torturer: direct perpetrator, institutional perpetrator, and transnational institutional perpetrator. Important reading for those in the fields of criminology, sociology, international relations and human rights law, this book will also be of key interest to scholars and students in the areas of state crime, human rights and imperialism.

Author : Monica Luci
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
Page : 260 pages
File Size : 54,7 Mb
Release : 2017-04-28
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781317439240

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Torture, Psychoanalysis and Human Rights by Monica Luci Pdf

Torture, Psychoanalysis and Human Rights contributes to the development of that field of study called ‘psycho-social’ that is presently more and more committed to providing understanding of social phenomena, making use of the explicative perspective of psychoanalysis. The book seeks to develop a concise and integrated framework of understanding of torture as a socio-political phenomenon based on psychoanalytic thinking, through which different dimensions of the subject of study become more comprehensible. Monica Luci argues that torture performs a covert emotional function in society. In order to identify what this function might be, a profile of ‘torturous societies’ and the main psychological dynamics of social actors involved – torturers, victims, and bystanders – are drawn from literature. Accordingly, a wide-ranging description of the phenomenology of torture is provided, detecting an inclusive and recurring pattern of key elements. Relying on psychoanalytic concepts derived from different theoretical traditions, including British object relations theories, American relational psychoanalysis and analytical psychology, the study provides an advanced line of conceptual research, shaping a model, whose aim is tograsp the deep meaning of key intrapsychic, interpersonal and group dynamics involved in torture. Once a sufficiently coherent understanding has been reached, Luci proposes using it as a groundwork tool in the human rights field to re-think the best strategies of prevention and recovery from post-torture psychological and social suffering. The book initiates a dialogue between psychoanalysis and human rights, showing that the proposed psychoanalytic understanding is a viable conceptualisation for expanding thinking of crucial issues regarding torture, which might be relevant to human rights and legal doctrine, such as the responsibility of perpetrators, the reparation of victims and the question of ‘truth’. Torture, Psychoanalysis and Human Rights is the first book to build a psychoanalytic theory of torture from which psychological, social and legal reflections, as well as practical aspects of treatment, can be mutually derived and understood. It will appeal to psychoanalysts, psychoanalytic psychotherapists and Jungians, as well as scholars of politics, social work and justice, and human rights and postgraduate students studying across these fields.

Author : Darius M. Rejali
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 892 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 2007
Category : History
ISBN : 0691114226

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Torture and Democracy by Darius M. Rejali Pdf

This is the most comprehensive, and most comprehensively chilling, study of modern torture yet written. Darius Rejali, one of the world's leading experts on torture, takes the reader from the late nineteenth century to the aftermath of Abu Ghraib, from slavery and the electric chair to electrotorture in American inner cities, and from French and British colonial prison cells and the Spanish-American War to the fields of Vietnam, the wars of the Middle East, and the new democracies of Latin America and Europe. As Rejali traces the development and application of one torture technique after another in these settings, he reaches startling conclusions. As the twentieth century progressed, he argues, democracies not only tortured, but set the international pace for torture. Dictatorships may have tortured more, and more indiscriminately, but the United States, Britain, and France pioneered and exported techniques that have become the lingua franca of modern torture: methods that leave no marks. Under the watchful eyes of reporters and human rights activists, low-level authorities in the world's oldest democracies were the first to learn that to scar a victim was to advertise iniquity and invite scandal. Long before the CIA even existed, police and soldiers turned instead to "clean" techniques, such as torture by electricity, ice, water, noise, drugs, and stress positions. As democracy and human rights spread after World War II, so too did these methods. Rejali makes this troubling case in fluid, arresting prose and on the basis of unprecedented research--conducted in multiple languages and on several continents--begun years before most of us had ever heard of Osama bin Laden or Abu Ghraib. The author of a major study of Iranian torture, Rejali also tackles the controversial question of whether torture really works, answering the new apologists for torture point by point. A brave and disturbing book, this is the benchmark against which all future studies of modern torture will be measured.

Author : J. Jeremy Wisnewski,R.D. Emerick
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 176 pages
File Size : 49,7 Mb
Release : 2009-05-21
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781441197986

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The Ethics of Torture by J. Jeremy Wisnewski,R.D. Emerick Pdf

Torture has recently been the subject of some sensational headlines. As a result, there has been a huge surge in interest in the ethical implications of this contentious issue. The Ethics of Torture offers the first complete introduction to the philosophical debates surrounding torture. The book asks key questions in light of recent events such as the abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib. What makes torture morally reprehensible? Are there any conditions under which torture is acceptable? What is it like to be tortured, and why do people engage in torture? The authors argue that the force of the most common arguments for torture (like the ticking-bomb argument) are significantly overestimated, while the wrongness of torture has been significantly underestimated-even by those who argue against it. This is the ideal introduction to the ethics of torture for students of moral philosophy or political theory. It also constitutes a significant contribution to the torture debate in its own right, presenting a unique approach to investigating this dark practice.