Why do people torture and ill-treat?

Introduction

Officially, the vast majority of the world’s countries are against torture and ill-treatment. As of 2022, just 20 United Nation (UN) states are not yet party to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UNCAT).{1} Yet despite this, charities supporting victims continue to report torture all over the globe.{2,3} Evidence of wide variation in its acceptability is its common depiction in films as a information-gathering tool or legitimate punishment.{4,5} So why is it that some people, cultures and societies torture and ill-treat, yet others do not?

Authority

A potential torturer’s own moral values may not support the use of torture. However, when under coercion from an authority figure, their trust in authority may override their own beliefs. The Milgram experiment demonstrated this obedience to authority. Researchers assumed the position of authority figures and allocated volunteers to the roles of teachers or students. The teachers were directed to use electric shocks of increasing voltage to punish students in another room who were making mistakes. Despite being able to hear the distress of the students, two thirds of volunteers complied with the wishes of their authority figures.{6}

Power

Torture is used to establish or demonstrate power over others. A would-be torturer may even feel intimidated by a potential victim. Using psychological manipulation or physical force, often couched as punishment for committing particular acts, helps the torturer feel dominant.

Punishment

Many people support torture as punishment for people who have allegedly done ‘bad things’ such as terrorism. In one online poll, 58% of the public declared torture to be justified as a form of punishment with many poll participants commenting that non-torturous punishments are not harsh enough for criminals who have done ‘truly awful’ things such as rape and murder.{7}

Fear

It is possible to exploit someone’s fear of being tortured. Those based in the western world often feel that this should be fear should be invoked within suspected would-be terrorists as a means to getting them to divulge information and so avert terrorist atrocities. However, findings show that a supporter of such methods may also want retribution.{8}

Suppression

People in power use torture to suppress those who act outside of a society’s norms. Many survivors give clear accounts of having been tortured simply because they opposed their society’s views on issues such as homosexuality, women’s rights and even healthcare provision.{9}

Humiliation

Torture is often used to humiliate those who stand out from the dominant ethnicity, religion, culture or other societal norms.{10} A classic example of such torture is the well-documented strip searching, so-called virginity testing, and other acts of humiliation carried out against a group of Egyptian women’s rights protestors.{3} The ultimate aim of such humiliation is to remove a victim’s sense of self-worth.

Information

A common belief among supporters of torture is that it can be necessary for the extraction of valuable information. Whilst he was in power, American President Trump openly supported the use of torture, suggesting that it could bring about good.{11} And it is common for people to support the utilitarian justification of torturing one person for information that may save at least two people.

Coercion

Torture is an effective coercion technique. Nuri, a Sudanese survivor of childhood torture, recalled, ‘Where I lived in Sudan young boys like me would be forced into the army, they made you kill your own family. The boys in my village refused so the army took us. I was burnt, beaten, locked up on my own. I still have the scars. I was just crying for my mum every day’.{9}

Entertainment

Historical records show torture being discussed about by everyday people. The famous English diarist, Samuel Pepys, wrote: ‘It seems Spong is so far thought guilty as that they intend to pitch upon him to put to the wracke or some other torture’.{12} Watching executions and torture were popular medieval pastimes: the modern-day phrase ‘laughing stock’ harks back to people going to laugh at prisoners suffering in marketplace stocks.{13} And the fact that large numbers of museums exhibit historical torture devices is evidence of the subject of torture persisting as a morbid fascinator.{14,15}

Sadism

Sadism is a minority trait persisting across many different cultures. Some theories suggest that it evolved as an adaptation to help in the slaughter of animals for survival, whilst others argue that cruelty can encourage success and help people become dominant over the animal kingdom and competitors.{16} Regardless though, sadists who become torturers derive a sense of personal pleasure from the pain they inflict on their victims.

Conclusion

Despite their abhorrent natures, torture and ill-treatment continue to occur across the globe, driven by diverse motives ranging from punishment through to information and even personal pleasure.

References

 1. Freedom From Torture. Where Does Torture Happen Around the World? 2019
https://bit.ly/3MhV0Do

2. Amnesty International. Torture. 2022
https://bit.ly/3K1psiW

3. O'Mara S. Why Torture Doesn’t Work: The Neuroscience of Interrogation. 2015
https://bit.ly/3vo6jDP

4. Mayer JD, & Koizumi N. Is there a Culture or Religion of Torture? International Support for Brutal Treatment of Suspected Terrorists. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 2017; 758-771

5. Rijswijk HV. Cultural Representations of Torture. In: The Oxford Encyclopedia of Crime, Media and Popular Culture. London, UK: Oxford University Press, 2017: 468-469

6. Debate.org. Can torture be justified as an added form of punishment? 2019 https://bit.ly/33WS0uN

7.  Carlsmith KM, & Sood AM. The fine line between interrogation and retribution. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 2008; 191-196

8. Freedom From Torture. Why does torture happen? Five survivors speak out. 2019 https://bit.ly/3pl4942

9. Vorbrüggen M, & Baer HU. Humiliation: The Lasting Effect of Torture. Military Medicine 2007; 29-33

10. Sullivan A. Trump Isn’t Merely Tolerating Torture - He’s Celebrating It. Intelligencer. 2018
https://nym.ag/3M8TBPe

11. Gyford P. Monday 27 October 1662. 2012
https://bit.ly/3InpuBo

12. Bell B. A ghoulish tour of medieval punishments. 2016
https://bbc.in/3qNe5nF

13. Museum of Medieval Torture Instruments. Museum of Medieval Torture Instruments. 2022
https://bit.ly/3JWYLfm

14. Tortureum. Tortureum Museum of Torture. 2015
https://bit.ly/3Hnkdsd

15. McCarthy-Jones S. From psychopaths to ‘everyday sadists’: why do humans harm the harmless? The Conversation 2020

16. Stein DJ. Sadistic cruelty and unempathic evil: Psychobiological and evolutionary considerations. Behavioural and Brain Sciences 2006; 29(3): 242

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