The history and methods of torture
(Book - Regular Print)

Includes bibliographical references (pages 94-95) and index.

Explains the history of torture, including the Inquisition and the witch hunts in Europe, and the efforts of Amnesty International to secure the banning of torture worldwide. Torture-the deliberate infliction of pain upon the human body-is condemned by most civilized countries as an inexcusable crime, but it is still practiced in many parts of the modern world. For over 3,000 years, it was regarded as acceptable and formed a part of most legal codes in Europe and the East. Torture was deemed necessary as a means of discovering truth, and the absence of most other methods of criminal investigation in earlier times justified its use. But crime could cover a multitude of activities that were considered contrary to the existing social order. The Inquisition, for example, established the principle that steadily increased pain would force heretics to confess their sins against the Church, a practice that was extended by civil authorities in the campaign against witchcraft to the point that it provoked near-hysteria in medieval Europe. While torture remained a part of legal practice, the techniques of the torturers-horrific though they were-were subject to a degree of control. But in more recent times, notably during World War II, the torturers have been sadists who derived pleasure from subjecting their victims to terrible suffering.

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