Discuss the historical justifications for using torture in western culture, and its impact on crime, criminals, sin and guilt. Why are some (but not all) such practices now considered to violate human rights?

Historically, torture has been legally practiced and carefully delimited by law. There were specific rules as to who could be tortured, when, by whom, for how long and applying which method. According to the United Nations Convention, implemented in 1987, against torture or other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishments, defines torture as “any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted by or at the instigation of a public official on a person for such purposes of obtaining from him or a third person information or confession, punishing him for an act he committed, or intimidating him or other persons or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind.” The Convention also outlawed cruel and degrading treatment but does not define such treatment. Many attempts have been made to define “severe” treatment. General Jay Bybee (USA) argued that the pain or suffering must be of such a high level of intensity that the pain is difficult for the subject to endure, suggesting that “severe” pain must be severe enough to lead to organ failure or death, the implication being that pain that was of less severity should not be defined as torture and should therefore be acceptable by law. In this essay I will examine various forms of torture in its looser definition, used within western culture at different times, and analyse their justifications and impact.

Examples of torture used by Western perpetrators can be either psychological or physical and include: shaming, public humiliation (e.g. being displayed naked), lengthy interrogation, exploitation of phobias including mock executions, extended sleep deprivation, extended solitary confinement, sensor deprivation, tooth extraction, beatings and physical violence, blinding light, boiling, bone breaking, castration, drowning including waterboarding and so on. Bone-breaking was used in medieval times to extract information or a confession of treason or adultery. This tended to be successful in obtaining a confession, although it is difficult to establish how dependable any information gained under duress might have been.

Another example of torture used in Western Europe in the late 1930s to 1945 was against Jews during the Holocaust. Jews were firstly humiliated in the streets, lost their businesses and later their homes and possessions, eventually subjected to starvation, mock executions and gassing in concentration camps. The justification for such behaviour appears to be ridding German society of the Jews who were seen as not Aryan, and not really human. It is interesting to note that by this time all such acts with the exception of concentration camps were being committed in public. The justification used by those operating the concentration camps was mainly “following orders given by those in greater authority.”

Acts of torture against women (witchcraft) took place in medieval times when women were accused of witchcraft, tied up and thrown into deep water. If they floated they were considered to have been rejected by good forces and were therefore evil, and burnt at the stake. If they were accepted by the water (and drowned) then they were considered to have been innocent. The purpose of such acts of torture would have been to enforce conformity, superstition and women’s dependence on men.

An interesting example of modern day torture in the west is what was carried out ...