Academic literature on the topic 'Torture – Psychological aspects'

In addition to direct effects on detainees, interrogators, intelligence agencies, and law, the U.S. torture program had additional corrupting influences on other aspects of society. This chapter explores the effects that the torture program had on civil society by exploring its effects on the profession of psychology and on the largest U.S. psychological professional organization, the American Psychological Association (APA). We briefly summarize public knowledge regarding the involvement of psychologists in the CIA and DoD "enhanced interrogation" torture programs. We then describe the public response of the APA as news of this knowledge emerged. However, the public response did not match the APA’s behind-the-scenes actions, as was revealed by a 2015 Independent Review of APA leaders' potential complicity with the torture program conducted by Chicago attorney David Hoffman. The resultant Hoffman Report found a pattern of backchannel collaboration ("collusion") to ensure that APA ethics guidelines on psychologists' interrogation support did not constrain psychologists beyond permissive DoD rules. We then put psychology's interrogation controversy in the context of broader issues regarding the ethics of “operational psychology,” that is, the use of psychological knowledge and expertise by psychologists to further military and intelligence operations. We argue that certain operational psychology applications conflict with the ethics of the profession, and question whether practitioners of such applications properly belong to the profession of psychology. We conclude with a call for a Truth Commission to document the involvement of psychologists in post-9/11 detention and interrogation processes, and to focus on lessons learned regarding professional relations with the security sector, so that future generations of psychologists are less likely to repeat post-9/11 mistakes.

Violence is a form of behavior of an individual, manifested in the use of physical force, psychological and verbal torture, and sexual abuse. Types of violence in which physical, mental, financial or any other aspect is significantly disproportionate in favor of the perpetrator, there are two especially sensitive types of violence: domestic violence and violence against animals. In this chapter, the authors wish to create convenient theoretical/bibliographical foundation for further studies, and to analyze actual data about these criminal acts. In order to achieve this, besides analysis and presentation of relevant past research studies in this field, attempts were also made to analyze official evidence provided by the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Serbia, as well as the official evidence obtained from the courts at several cities regarding charges brought in these cases.