Do institutions play a role in the perpetration of torture?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.30827/tsg-gsw.v8i15.7931Keywords:
Torturer behavior, criminal behavior, police, militarized intuitions, torture, political violenceAbstract
During the late 1960s and early 1970s, most Latin American countries experienced military coups and military interventions in government affairs. In Chile, the military coup of 1973 established a military regime that lasted seventeen years, from 1973 to 1990. As a result of the military dictatorship thousands of people were killed, disappeared and/or tortured. This study examines the influence of the institutional framework on the occurrence of torture and the behavior of torturers. Perpetrators of torture are the main source of information. Depth interviews were conducted with Chilean military and policemen who were active during the military regime, National Reports and judicial files were analyzed. The study traces the realities that a group within in the military regime faced and examines the ways in which participants attempted to cope with the criminal behavior that was encouraged by the institutional framework.
Downloads
References
Amnesty International (1984). Torture in the Eighties. London: Amnesty International Publications. Retrieved from
https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/ACT40/001/1984/en/
Baumeister, R. (1996). Evil: Inside Human Cruelty and Violence. NY: W. H. Freedman & Company.
Carver, R. and Handley, L. (2017). Does Torture Prevention Work? Oxford –U.K.-: Oxford University Press.
Código de Justicia Militar de la República de Chile (1944). Decreto nº 2226, de 19 de diciembre de 1944. Santiago de Chile: Presidencia de la República. Retrieved from https://www.leychile.cl/Navegar?idNorma=18914&idParte=0
Código de Procedimiento Penal Chileno de la República de Chile (1906). Ley 1853 de 13 de febrero de 1906. Santiago de Chile: Congreso Nacional. Retrieved from
https://www.leychile.cl/Navegar?idNorma=22960
Conroy, J. (2000). Unspeakable Acts, Ordinary People: The Dynamics of Torture. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Cottam, M. (1994). Images and Intervention: U. S. Policies in Latin America. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.
Creslisten, R. D. (1995). In Their Own Words: The Words of the Torturer. In Ronald D. Creslisten and Alex P. Schmid. (Eds). The Politics of Pain: Torturers and Their Masters (pp. 35–64). Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Dixon, N. (1976). On the Psychology of Military Incompetence. 2nd Edition. London: Jonathan Cape Ltd.
García Rivas, H. (1984). Hugo García Rivas: Memorias de un Ex-Torturador. Edited by Eduardo Varela-Cid. Argentina: El Cid Editor.
Gibson, J. T. & Haritos-Fatouros, M. (1986). The Education of a Torturer. Psychology Today 20(11), 50-58.
Graziano, F. (1992). Divine Violence. Boulder, USA: Westview Press. Inc.
Haritos-Fatouros, M. (1988). The Official Torturer: A Learning Model for Obedience to the Authority of Violence. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 18, 1107-1120.
_________ (2003). The psychological origins of institutionalizated torture. London and N.Y.: Routledge Research International Series in Social Psychology.
Henníngs, E., Uribe, V. & Guajardo, G. (1995). Informe, Detención y Destino Final de Detenidos Desaparecidos por la DINA (1974-1977): Un Studio Preliminar. Informe elaborado para la Corporación Nacional de Reparación y Reconciliación en Chile.
Huggins, M. K., & Haritos-Fatouros, M. (2014). Bureaucratizing Masculinities Among Brazilian Torturers and Murderers. In Ruth Jamieson (Ed). The Criminology of War (pp. 431-460). London: Routledge.
Huggins, M. K., Haritos-Fatouros, M., & Zimbardo, P. (2003). Violence Workers: Police Torturers and Murders Reconstruct Brazilian Atrocities. CA: University of California Press.
Kelman, H. C. (1995). The Social Context of Torture: Policy Process and Authority of the Torturer. In Ronald D. Creslisten and Alex P. Schmid (Eds). The Politics of Pain: Torturers and Their Masters (pp. 19-32). Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Kelman, H. C. and Hamilton, V. L. (1989). Crime of Obedience: Toward a Social Psychology of Authority and Responsibility. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Law 19.696 (2000) por la que se establece el Código Procesal Penal de la República de Chile. Santiago de Chile: Ministerio de Justicia. Retrieved from https://www.leychile.cl/Navegar?idNorma=176595&idVersion=2018-03-01
McKelvey, T. (2007). Monstering: Inside America’s policy of secret interrogations and torture in the terror war. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers.
National Commission on Disappeared People (1986). Never Again: A Report by Argentina's National Commission on Disappeared People. Great Britain, Somerset and London: Butter and Tanner Ltd. Frame.
Neuman, W. L. (2005). Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. 3rd Edition. Boston, USA: Allyn and Bacon.
Paillé, P. (2006) La méthologie qualitative: Postures de recherche et travail de terrain. Paris: Armand Colin.
Payne, L. A. (1998). Confessions of Torturers: Reflections on Cases from Argentina. Paper presented at the Latin American Studies Association Meetings, Chicago.
Philip, G. (1985). The Military in South American Politics. London: Croom Helm Ltd.
Rettig, R., Castillo, J., Cea, J.L., Jiménez, M., Martín, R., Novoa, L., Vial, G., & Zalaquett, J. (1991). Informe de la Comisión Nacional de Verdad y Reconciliación. Gobierno de Chile. Retrieved from http://bibliotecadigital.indh.cl/handle/123456789/170
Rouquié, A. (1987). The Military and the State in Latin America. LA: University of California Press.
Schirmer, J. (1998). The Guatemalan Military Project: A Violence Called Democracy. University Pennsylvania Press.
Servicio Paz y Justicia Uruguay (1989). Uruguay Nunca Más: informe sobre violación de Derechos Humanos, 1972-1985. 2ª edición. Montevideo: Servicio Paz y Justicia.
Skaar, E. & Malca, C. (2014). Latin American Civil-Military Relations in a Historical Perspective: A Literature Review. Bergen: Chr. Milchesen Institute (CMI Working Paper WP 2014:6). Retrieved from https://www.cmi.no/publications/file/5189-latin-american-civil-military-relations-in-a.pdf
Strauss, A. L. & Corbin, J. (2002). Bases de la Investigación Cualitativa. Colombia: Universidad de Antioquia.
United Nations (1974). Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in Relation to Detention and Imprisonment. General Assembly Resolution 3218 (XXIX). Retrieved from
http://digitallibrary.un.org/record/663632?ln=en
Valech, S., Sepúlveda, M. L., Amunátegui, M., Fouillioux, L., Gómez, J., Lira E., Sierra, L., and Varela, A. (2004). Informe de la Comisión Nacional de Prisión Política y Tortura. Gobierno de Chile. Retrieved from
http://bibliotecadigital.indh.cl/handle/123456789/455
Wesson, R. (1986). The Latin America Military Institution. New York: Praeger Publishers.
Wiarda, H. & Collins, H. (2011). Constitutional Coups? Military Intervention in Latin America. Center for Strategic & International Studies. CSIS. Retrieved from https://csis-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/legacy_files/files/publication/110627_Wiarda_ConstitutionalCoups_Web.pdf.
Zagorski, P. W. (1992). Democracy vs. National Security: Civil-Military Relations in Latin America. Boulder –Colo- and London: Lynne Rienner Publishers.
__________ (1997). The Military. In Richard S. Hillman (Ed.). Understanding Contemporary Latin America (pp. 95-118). Boulder, Colo: Lynne Rienner Publishers.
Zimbardo, P. (2008). El Efecto Lucifer: El porqué de la maldad. Barcelona, Spain: Ediciones Paidós, S. A.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Authors publishing in this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain their copyright. They guarantee to this journal the right to a first publication of the work submitted to initiate the editorial process.
- Authors know that their work is published under a Creative Commons License which allows others to share it, with a recognition of the work's authorship and its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors share with Global Social Work explotation rights of the work that has been published in this journal, authorizing the execution of a free reproduction, distribution and public communication. Authors know that their work will be stored on servers and reproduced in digital format for inclusion in institutional repositories and databases that will facilitates free access to the full text of the work.
- Authors may distribute the version of the work published in this journal (for example, to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with the explicit acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
Copyright on the texts published in Trabajo Social Global -Global Social Work, as well as editorial policy of the journal refering to self-file and deposit in institutional or thematic repositories, are identified in the database