• US adult judgments of terrorism scenarios were skewed by prior support for torture. • Those previously supporting torture saw coerced information as more valuable. • Torture opposers did not show a bias for or against coerced information. • Results also revealed a “selective efficacy” boundary concerning informant identity. • Supporters privileged coerced information from outgroup but not ing...

Using reports from 154 examinations of alleged torture victims among asylum applicants to Denmark conducted by the Department of Forensic Medicine, University of Copenhagen, between 2001 and 2013, we have categorized the victims into four geographical regions, as well as according to the conflict that caused them to flee. The torture incidents described by the victims were divided into 12 diffe...

This article is concerned with the increasing prevalence of torture in Egypt. Torture is a widespread problem in Egypt, being practiced in the majority of police stations and state security places. It has become a routine practice and is seen daily on a systematic basis. The number of people who are subjected every month to torture is unimaginable. In addition, there are deaths that occur as a ...

BACKGROUND Torture is an important social and political problem worldwide that affects millions of people. Many host countries give victims of torture the status of refugee and take care of them as far as basic needs; health care, professional reinsertion, and education. Little is known about the costs of torture. However, this knowledge could serve as an additional argument for the prevention ...

Torture is prohibited by statutes worldwide, yet the legal definition of torture is almost invariably based on an inherently subjective judgment involving pain severity. In four experiments, we demonstrate that judgments of whether specific interrogation tactics constitute torture are subject to an empathy gap: People who are experiencing even a mild version of the specific pain produced by an ...

BACKGROUND For more than half a century, the risk of physicians participating in torture has received thoughtful attention in the field of medicine, and a number of international organizations have issued declarations decrying such involvement. Despite publications that provide evidence of dentists' having participated in torture as well, until recently the dental profession was quiescent on th...

This paper reports the findings of a survey of medical students' attitudes toward torture and discusses variables that may correlate with those attitudes. In late 2016, 483 enrolled medical and MD-PhD students at the Weill Cornell Medical College received an anonymous, institutional review board-approved survey that included questions about torture and its effectiveness, demographic questions, ...

Author's abstract Torture does need to be defined ifwe are to know exactly what we are seeking to ban; but no single definition will do, because there are many possible ones, and we may want to treat different practices that might be called torture differently. Compare the case ofhomicide; we do not want to punish manslaughter as severely as murder, and may not want to punish killing in self-de...

In this study, we examined sociodemographic, persecutor identity, torture, and postmigration variables associated with suicidal ideation in a clinical sample of 267 immigrant survivors of torture who have resettled in New York City. The purpose of this study was to identify variables associated with increased risk for suicidal ideation in survivors of torture before they receive legal, psycholo...

Although standard ethical views categorize intentional torture as morally wrong, the ticking time bomb (TTB) scenario is frequently offered as a legitimate counter-example that justifies the use of torture. In this scenario, a bomb has been placed in a city by a terrorist, and the only way to defuse the bomb in time is to torture a terrorist in custody for information. TTB scenarios appeal to a...