Training Torturers Jessica Wolfendale Analysis

Improved Essays
Jessica Wolfendale discusses what permitting torture would involve realistically in her work Training Torturers: A Critique of the “Ticking Bomb” Argument. The hypothetical ticking bomb argument fails to distinguish a justification of the general practice and individual instances of torture. She refers to the discussion as “a new war in which moral constraints do not apply”, for to allow torture is to allow the training of torturers. Historically they have been chosen for obedience, trustworthiness, political beliefs, and endurance of pain. Torturers would have to be trained in interrogational torture. She accepts that perhaps training is not necessary as many are able to harm others without it; however, the Khmer Rouge Manual for Torture

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Introducing the author Daniel J. Hill, he made good points on views of torture on how it could be permissible and not permissible. He introduced different scenarios on how to look at torture and was very interesting. One view he gave was a “defense case” that expressed that the officer spots a terrorist who plans to detonate a bomb that could risk lives of many. The officer made the choice to tase the terrorist just enough to paralyze him from making the bomb go off. Another case was the “interrogation case” that speaks about a terrorist planting a bomb somewhere and security services using electric shocks to get the terrorist to speak on the whereabouts of the bomb.…

    • 305 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Summary: The Term Torture

    • 413 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The term “Torture” derives from the Latin word “tortus” meaning “twisted. Torture involves the intentional infliction of physical or mental pain on a person to fulfill some desire of the perpetrator or to compel some action from the victim. The following are some general definitions of torture. 1. Torture is the act of inflicting excruciating pain, as punishment or revenge, as a means of getting a confession or information, or for sheer cruelty.…

    • 413 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Diagnostic: “The Torture Myth” by Anne Applebaum After the events of September 11, 2001, America launched into an anti-terrorism fight that was different from any other fight seen before. The aspiration for three-letter government agencies became information. Information became the most valuable asset in warfare. Initially, torture was the obvious choice for extracting information. However, officials started to question its effectiveness.…

    • 217 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The “ticking time bomb” scenario is arguably the most used justification for the use of torture. The problem with this scenario is that it is based solely on the discretion of the intelligence official. This policy addresses the idea of discretion as both the ability to make a decision and the ability to govern in terms of policymaking. Theodore J. Lowi in his article Legitimizing Public Administration: A Disturbed Dissent talks about where the constitutional ability to use discretion lies. He contends that discretion lies in the hands Congress first and foremost (Lowi, 1993, p. 263).…

    • 186 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Cathy Young, in the article How Much Torture is OK, makes a very valid point when talking about torture. She believes if some torture is considered to be OK all torture will be considered OK. To be more specific, if they make exceptions for some circumstances, then it’ll be hard to justify between what is right and wrong. She also mentioned that the ticking time bomb situation was highly improbable. Young is a pragmatist, she understands that there is no right answer to the situation but in this case she wants to preserve America's core…

    • 781 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The thesis of this essay is clear and ridiculous. The argument that public torture is a more suitable substitute to prison time is so inhumane and primitive; it makes me wonder whether or not the author is being sincere in his essay. He supports his arguments by listing victims of these severe punishments and the ordeals that they endured.…

    • 492 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Marianne Szegedy-Maszak’s “The Abu Ghraib Prison Scandal: Sources of Sadism” and Dr. Zimbardo’s “The Stanford Prison Experiment” are not considered extremely recent; still they retain relevance and applicability today. Szegedy-Maszak proposes that the Abu Ghraib scandal possesses three key aspects conducive to a torture driven environment: authorization, routinization, and dehumanization. Szegedy-Maszak attempts to provide an explanation for the inhumane actions of American soldiers toward Iraqi prisoners. In attempting to determine the origins and requirements necessary for a human being to execute evil atrocities, Marianne Szegedy-Maszak focuses on the impact authorization exhibits to cause human beings to allow the power of situation to…

    • 1221 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Torturing suspects or criminals is a very hot issue in the United States. There are many arguments between should the US officials torture terrorists when interrogating them. Michael Levin says he agrees on torturing terrorists for information in his essay, “The Case for Torture”. He addresses his arguments by giving a few hypothetical scenarios of terrorist attacks. One of the examples is, when there is an atomic bomb in Manhattan which is going to explode very soon, the US got the guy who planted it and need to get the location of the bomb and method to disarm it.…

    • 400 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The world soon joined the United Sates, and the end of World War II saw the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and in the 1980’s the United Nations adopted a detailed treaty on torture in peacetime. This left for a long standing terms of absolutely no torturing of any individual. However all of the decades of laws, and all of the championing of the United States against torture came crashing down in the aftermath of September 11, 2001. Following the September 11 terrorist attacks within the year the United States executive branch was using torture to gain information. This was against every single law because the United States and never officially declared war.…

    • 1855 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Together, these two articles prove to us that Canada has been complicit in torture, and that it is important to come to a conclusion about what is considered torture. Articles such as this will be helpful with literature review, because they teach us how to convey to the reader what knowledge and ideas have been established on a topic, and what their strengths and weaknesses…

    • 1138 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Torture Debate Analysis

    • 827 Words
    • 4 Pages

    After reading this article, I believe that the author had provided enough evidence on whether or not torture would be beneficial or if it would lead to a slippery slope tragedy that would go against what they were trying to accomplish. In essence, I believe that having a torture system would only have a negative outcome and Liberal democracies should refrain from using such systems since preventing massive global issues could be more important than killing potential terrorists to protect innocent residents. Throughout the text presented the main idea…

    • 827 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Torture Vs Torture

    • 258 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Unfortunately, however, different forms of inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment as well as torture are practised in all parts of the world, including highly industrialised and developed countries. Despite the fact that society is evolving, the effect of torture remains the same: such violations of human rights result in serious harm to the human being, to his physical and mental immunity, and requires a lot of effort to make it stop. Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) says: “No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” . For many years international legal institutions have been developing, improving and consolidating different ways of resolving the problem. At…

    • 258 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Levin’s hypothetical leads to the illogical “A Case For Torture” is an essay written by Michael Levin in which he tries to make a compelling case for the use of torture as a punishment during certain situations in the United States. One of the ways Levin tries to logically prove his argument is by citing different real life situations; some examples are situations that actually occurred, but most are hypothetical situations. The use of hypothetical situations is meant to help direct the reader to understand the applications of Levin’s policy on torture. With that, Levin is not convincing in his argument as he relies too heavily on the hypothetical. Michael Levin in “A Case For Torture” is not logically convincing in his discussion as to why…

    • 1283 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The idea of torture can scare many people. In today’s world torture is now viewed as a thing of the past; a solution to our ancestor’s problems. Yet in reality, the dilemma whether torture should be used or not is still an issue. Many people would automatically say torture should not be allowed, until they are told millions of lives depend on it. Michael Levin is the person that made many readers second guess their answer to that simple, yet difficult question.…

    • 908 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Since the article “The Case for Torture” by Michael Levin was published in Newsweek in 1982, it has stirred up many debates regarding the universal use of torture. Levin believes that torture is justifiable in extreme cases such as preventing terrorism to save lives. Levin argues by giving examples of make-believe scenarios in which the only two options given are to either meet the demands of the terrorist or to torture the terrorist so that innocent lives can be spared; however, Levin’s argument is flawed because he never fully defines the boundaries which can be placed on the concept of torture that would ensure that the use of torture is not abused. He believes that the best way to address a problem in which one wants an immediate result…

    • 1053 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays