Torture
by Brian A. Pavlac,
Ph.D., Professor of History
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Torture
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This page provides links and explains some of the phenomenon of torture, especially as applied to the witch hunts. It is still under some construction.
Torture has become a matter of current events rather than a
quaint practice from people long ago or far away.
Recent
American involvement in accusations of torture range from treatment of “enemy
combatants” at “Gitmo” (the US military base at Guantanamo on the island of
Cuba) to the
Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, to “extraordinary rendition” of suspect
terrorists by the CIA to “black sites” (secret facilities in foreign countries
where torture may be carried out).
One of the trickiest issues is the definition of Torture. Do we know when we see it?
The United Nations Convention on Torture <http://www.un.org/documents/ga/res/39/a39r046.htm or http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/diana/undocs/33198-5.html> (proposed in 1984, in force by 1987, ratified by the USA in 1994) states:
any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions.
The last sentence exempts punishment from the definition of torture and the UN would hesitate to ban it. Yet, outside of criminal punishment, torture is unacceptable. The UN convention also states: “No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.” See also the UN Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Being Subjected to Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment <http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/h_comp38.htm or http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/diana/undocs/71598-8.html> of 1975.
The quite common idea of a “crimen exemptum” or an exceptional crime or emergency allows for exemptions from legal procedure, ranging from violating rules of evidence to applying torture. In the Witch Hunts, the fear of magic and its power often allowed authorities to excuse themselves from strict observance of legalities. (See an article here). Another excuse for allowing torture is the “ticking time bomb myth” or the idea that some disaster may occur if someone isn't tortured into telling the truth soon enough. Such emergencies with knowing perpetrators under a tight deadline are drawn almost entirely from fiction, not the real world.
This page, therefore, focuses on torture as inflicting pain according to the law. How private individuals, sick sadists, or criminals might inflict agony can certainly be defined as torture, but is not under consideration here. Suffering inflicted by authorities, states, governments, or legally constituted officials are particularly relevant to the Witch Hunts.
“Questioning”
“Interrogation” (including lying, good cop/bad cop, some discomfort (bright light, thirst, pressure for need for restroom, isolation)
“Enhanced Interrogation Techniques”
“cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment” (as mentioned in the McCain Amendment to the Dept. of Defense Appropriations Act, 2006 (listed as H.R. 2863 of the 109th Congress, Amendment s. 10909).
severe pain and suffering
or
“equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such
as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death.” (according to
the
Bybee Memo of 2002) or "a substantial risk of death... extreme physical
pain;... a... significant loss or impairment of the function of a bodily member,
organ, or mental faculty " (according to
Military Commissions Act of
2006 from the 109th Congress, referenced as S. 3930.ENR).
Authorities have two main purposes for torture, either information or punishment. Some scholars of torture and law codes (such as the UN Convention) leave out the punishment side of torture.
Intimidation and cruelty might be two more possible motives for torture. Intimidation would seek to discourage people from certain behaviors or beliefs through the fear that they also might be tortured. Some authorities might simply enjoy inflicting pain on others. Civilized people would probably claim to avoid such uses of torture, although it seems human nature easily slips into the torturer mentality (see the Stanford Prison Experiment). Authorities might also conceivably use torture for behavior modification, as per fictional accounts such as A Clockwork Orange or 1984. Such methods, however, could be properly included under the punishment (and rehabilitation) aspects of torture.
Torture usually follows RULES
The person is presumed guilty.
The torture is authorized by legal procedures.
The torture is observed and recorded.
The torture is of limited duration.
The torture is carried out with increasing intensity.
The torture leaves no permanent physical damage to the victim.
The torture does not kill the victim.
Victim must repeat confession outside of torture.
During the witch hunts, torture expanded the number of victims as "confessions" implicated more people as witches. Where torture was not used, or was carefully regulated, hunts were non-existent, rare, or limited. Below are examples of methods and tools of torture used in the European Witch Hunts.
| 1st degree--ask for confession | 2nd degree--threaten torture | 3rd degree--prepare for torture |
| 1st degree--ask for confession | 2nd degree--threaten torture | 3rd degree--prepare for torture | 4th degree--screws | 5th degree--rack |
| Threatening | Degrading | Isolating |
| Discomforting: | Pulling: |
Expanding: |
Striking: |
| Judas cradle; fork; dunking; heat or cold |
 strappado;rack; ladder |
force feeding |
Newgate Prison beating cane/rod; whip |
| Mutilating: | Crushing: |
Burning: |
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| flaying; whipping; gouging; plucking; pulling off nails; pins |
 screws; twisting ropes; garrote; pressing |
hot irons; scalding water; fire; hot oil; fat |
For most crimes before 1800, torture during the investigation and trial could be supplemented during the punishment. The attitude of the Enlightenment, such as in the U.S. Constitution, Amendment VIII “… nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted,” helped to end the use of torture in punishment. The tendency of Western nations has at least officially been to moderate the cruelty used in punishment. Most crimes are punished today by fines, imposing community service, or confinement (house arrest or imprisonment). An allegedly common goal of modern imprisonment is rehabilitation: reforming criminals into good citizens. The conditions of many modern prisons, however, which include beatings and rapes by fellow prisoners, might be considered a form of torture.
| Degrading: | Striking: | Mutilating: | Isolating | Executing: |
| pillory/stocks; hard labor; fiddles; weights; signs | flogging; beating; caning | flogging; branding; chopping | solitary confinement | hanging; burying alive; immuring; starving; drowning; burning; boiling; breaking on the wheel; impaling; sawing; ripping with tongs; flaying; disemboweling; drawing and quartering; beheading |
The United States is alone among modern industrialized Western states still to execute criminals. Even so, capital punishment officially aims to reduce the suffering of the condemned, compared to execution methods of the past. Methods still used in the various state and federal executions include hanging, firing squad, the electric chair, the gas chamber, and lethal injection.
Executions in Early Modern England: Excellent site includes links to primary source pictures, poems, speeches, literary references, etc. Mostly about normal criminal executions, but relevant to witch punishments.
Historical Torture Museum: From a traveling exhibition based on exhibits from the Medieval Criminal Museum in San Gimignano, Italy. Includes some pictures and reflections.
Medieval Crime Museum: Brief web material covering an excellent criminal history museum, Kriminalmuseum, in Rothenburg-ob-der-Tauber, Germany.
Newgate Calendar: 18th-19th-Century English book listing criminals and punishments. Includes some witches among them (e.g. Mary Bateman 1809, Thomas Colley, 1751).
The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, London 1674 to 1834: Searchable database of over 100,000 crimes, including a few "witches."
Real Torture: Torture History and Political Torture: A page with links to other torture websites, part of a larger site of life-style and fictional torture information. Not updated since 2000, so many links no longer connect.
Reggio, Michael H. History of the Death Penalty: Good brief history connected with a PBS Frontline show about the execution of a double murderer in Texas.
Torture list of Cologne 1757: A list of the prices charged to victims of torture. Although part of a page describing autos-da-fé at an atheist website attacking atrocities by Christians, the source reflects genuine, and ironic, cruelty.
What Is Torture? An interactive primer on American interrogation by Emily Bazelon, Phillip Carter, and Dahlia Lithwick: While the primer is more about modern torture, it provides good definitions and illustrations of motives and techniques.
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URL: http://departments.kings.edu/womens_history/witch/torture.html
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