Topic
Torture
About: Torture is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 8173 publications have been published within this topic receiving 109895 citations.
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TL;DR: In this article, the psychosocial effects of extreme experiences such as torture, mutilation, rape, and the violent displacement of communities are considered in particular and the consequences for women and children are considered.
Abstract: In current armed conflicts around the world, over 90 per cent of casualties are civilians. This article reviews medical and anthropological evidence of the psychosocial effects of extreme experiences such as torture, mutilation, rape, and the violent displacement of communities. The consequences for women and children are considered in particular. The author argues that the social development programmes of non-governmental development organisations should be extended to support social networks and institutions in areas of conflict, and ends by giving guidelines for mental health promoters working in traumatised communities.
58 citations
Journal Article•
TL;DR: Gross and Arrigo as mentioned in this paper argued that torture should remain, as it is, absolutely non-derogably illegal and argued that if a public official honestly, upon careful reflection, judged that the ultimate catastrophe loomed but that it could be prevented if and only if some one person or even some small number of persons-were tortured, he could act on his conviction and conduct the torture outside the law.
Abstract: ION Gross and I both think, it seems, that torture should remain, as it is, absolutely non-derogably illegal. But we both also wished that if a public official honestly, upon careful reflection, judged that the ultimate catastrophe loomed but that it could be prevented if and only if some one personor even some small number of persons-were tortured, he could act on his conviction and conduct the torture outside the law. I say "outside the law" in order to fudge some differences between us that, although they are important, I do not want to pursue very far here. As his comments regarding the quotation from Carl Schmitt that I introduced at the beginning of this piece indicate, Gross believes that the arrival of what he calls the "catastrophic case" heralds, or perhaps simply constitutes, the suspension of normality that, Schmitt claimed, is a necessary condition for the rule of law. Schmitt seems to me to have matters backwards. It is when conditions are eroding that one really needs the rule of law. But that is a long story for another time. Gross characterizes the non-normal situation as "extra-legal,' which is worrisome because it seems much too wholesale. To be fair to him, however, he insists that any entry into the extra-legal be considered for "ex 18 Id. at 240. 2006] CASE W. RES. J. INT'L L. post ratification."' 19 In his hypothetical, if the move to the extra-legal is not granted ex post ratification, then any official who ordered torture as an act of "official disobedience" may be punished criminally and sued civilly for violating the laws against torture. 20 My 1978 proposal was much more limited and simple: essentially, that the torture would be like an act of civil disobedience at least in the respect that the conscientious torturer would willingly submit to charges and trial. If the torture had demonstrably prevented the end of the world, the charges would presumably be dropped or the sentence suspended. The difficulty, which seems equally severe for Gross's suggestion and mine, is that our reluctant torturer would probably also be an incompetent torturer, most unlikely to succeed at what might well be his first try at extracting information. Successful torturers must avoid sympathy and empathy, or they will go too easy. But they must also avoid anger and cruelty, or they will go too hard and merely knock the victim senseless, or drive him into a dissociative state, and learn nothing useful for the prevention of catastrophe. Torture is not for amateurs-successful torturers need to be real "pros", and no one becomes a "pro" overnight. At a minimum, one must practice-perhaps do research, be mentored by the still more experienced. In short, torture needs a bureaucracy, with apprentices and experts, of the kind that torture in fact always has. Torquemada was not an independent consultant. Torture is an institution. 21 Arrigo sums it up this way: The use of sophisticated torture techniques by a trained staff entails the problematic institutional arrangements I have laid out: physician assistance; cutting edge, secret biomedical research for torture techniques unknown to the terrorist organization and tailored to the individual captive for swift effect; well trained torturers, quickly accessible at major locations; pre-arranged permission from the courts because of the urgency; rejection of independent monitoring due to security issues; and so on. These institutional arrangements will have to be in place, with all their unintended and accumulating consequences, however rarely terrorist suspects are tortured .... [T]he harm to innocent victims of the terrorist should be
58 citations
TL;DR: Although core PTSD is the dominant factor in symptomatology, comorbidity is high, with another three symptom factors emerging as meaningful, however, client reports of threats and humiliation or forced viewing of others being tortured should alert clinicians to the likely development of core PTSD, if it has not already occurred.
Abstract: Objectives: The purpose of this study was: (i) to examine the incidence of psychological and medical symptomatology, torture and related trauma in a sample of 191 refugee clients of the Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors (STARTTS) in New South Wales (NSW), Australia; and (ii) to identify patterns of current symptoms, patterns of torture and trauma experiences and the relationships between symptoms and experiences.Method: Analysis of STARTTS client records permitted the coding of the presence/absence of 41 medical and psychological symptoms and of 33 torture and trauma experiences. Principal components analyses were used to identify patterns of current symptoms and patterns of torture and trauma experiences. Multiple regression analysis was used to identify relationships between current symptoms and traumatic events in the country of origin or en route to Australia.Results: Six factors were extracted for both the symptoms and trauma experiences; the first symptom f...
57 citations
TL;DR: Categorizing the diverse traumatic events that are defined as torture, and determining how these torture types relate to demographics and symptom presentation offer insight into the nature of torture and differences in responses are offered.
Abstract: Few research studies have systematically categorized the types of torture experienced around the world. The purpose of this study is to categorize the diverse traumatic events that are defined as torture, and determine how these torture types relate to demographics and symptom presentation. Data for 325 individuals were obtained through a retrospective review of records from the Bellevue/NYU for Survivors of Torture. A factor analysis generated a model with five factors corresponding to witnessing torture of others, torture of family members, physical beating, rape/sexual assault, and deprivation/passive torture. These factors were significantly correlated with a number of demographic variables (sex, education, and region of origin). Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, anxiety, and depression symptoms were significantly correlated with the rape factor but no other factors were uniquely associated with psychological distress. The results offer insight into the nature of torture and differences in responses.
57 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1992
57 citations