IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jlawss/v4y2014i1p1-15d43981.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Study of Torture: Why It Persists, Why Perceptions of It are Malleable, and Why It is Difficult to Eradicate

Author

Listed:
  • Erin M. Kearns

    (Department of Justice, Law and Criminology, American University, 4400 Massachusetts Avenue, Washington, DC 20016, USA)

Abstract

Why does torture persist despite its prohibition? Scholars, policymakers, and the public have heavily debated this topic in the past decade. Yet, many puzzles remain about the practice of torture. Scholarship on torture spans academic disciplines, which adds diversity in perspectives brought to these questions but also can lead to redundancy and stunted progress in research on the issue as a whole. This article assesses the state of the multidisciplinary literature on torture in counterterrorism with specific focus on why democracies torture despite prohibiting it, how public perception of torture is malleable, and why so few countries are able to move from commitment to compliance in the prohibition of torture. In each section, the article also identifies underexplored areas in the research and suggests avenues for future investigation.

Suggested Citation

  • Erin M. Kearns, 2014. "The Study of Torture: Why It Persists, Why Perceptions of It are Malleable, and Why It is Difficult to Eradicate," Laws, MDPI, vol. 4(1), pages 1-15, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlawss:v:4:y:2014:i:1:p:1-15:d:43981
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-471X/4/1/1/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-471X/4/1/1/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David C. Wyld, 2010. "ASecond Lifefor organizations?: managing in the new, virtual world," Management Research Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 33(6), pages 529-562, May.
    2. Hafner-Burton, Emilie M., 2008. "Sticks and Stones: Naming and Shaming the Human Rights Enforcement Problem," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 62(4), pages 689-716, October.
    3. Axel Dreher & Martin Gassebner & Lars-H. Siemers, 2010. "Does Terrorism Threaten Human Rights? Evidence from Panel Data," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 53(1), pages 65-93, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Axel Dreher & Martin Gassebner & Lars-H. R. Siemers, 2012. "Globalization, Economic Freedom, and Human Rights," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 56(3), pages 516-546, June.
    2. repec:got:cegedp:115 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Martin L. Weitzman, 2015. "A Voting Architecture for the Governance of Free-Driver Externalities, with Application to Geoengineering," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 117(4), pages 1049-1068, October.
    4. Ruggeri Andrea & Burgoon Brian, 2012. "Human Rights “Naming & Shaming” and Civil War Violence," Peace Economics, Peace Science, and Public Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 18(3), pages 1-13, December.
    5. Sam R. Bell & K. Chad Clay & Amanda Murdie, 2019. "Join the Chorus, Avoid the Spotlight: The Effect of Neighborhood and Social Dynamics on Human Rights Organization Shaming," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 63(1), pages 167-193, January.
    6. Dittmann, Heidi & Kuchinke, Björn A., 2016. "Sharing Economy and Regulation," 27th European Regional ITS Conference, Cambridge (UK) 2016 148665, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    7. Ormandy, David & Ezratty, Véronique, 2012. "Health and thermal comfort: From WHO guidance to housing strategies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 116-121.
    8. Obasan Kehinde A., 2014. "Impact of Human Resources Management on Entrepreneurship Development," Acta Universitatis Danubius. OEconomica, Danubius University of Galati, issue 10(1), pages 83-93, February.
    9. Reto Foellmi & Stefan Legge & Lukas Schmid, 2016. "Do Professionals Get It Right? Limited Attention and Risk‐taking Behaviour," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 0(592), pages 724-755, May.
    10. Jetter, Michael, 2017. "Terrorism and the Media: The Effect of US Television Coverage on Al-Qaeda Attacks," IZA Discussion Papers 10708, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Shubha Kamala Prasad & Irfan Nooruddin, 2024. "States living in glasshouses …: Why fighting domestic insurgency changes how countries vote in the UN human rights council," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 41(5), pages 556-573, September.
    12. Jetter, Michael, 2017. "The effect of media attention on terrorism," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 32-48.
    13. Beatty, Timothy K.M. & Blow, Laura & Crossley, Thomas F. & O'Dea, Cormac, 2014. "Cash by any other name? Evidence on labeling from the UK Winter Fuel Payment," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 86-96.
    14. Delfgaauw, Josse & Dur, Robert & Non, Arjan & Verbeke, Willem, 2014. "Dynamic incentive effects of relative performance pay: A field experiment," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 1-13.
    15. Oluyemisi Kuku & Peter F. Orazem & Sawkut Rojid & Milan Vodopivec, 2016. "Training funds and the incidence of training: the case of Mauritius," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(3), pages 280-299, June.
    16. Wenjie Wang & Qingfeng Liu, 2015. "Bootstrap-based Selection for Instrumental Variables Model," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 35(3), pages 1886-1896.
    17. Kikuta,Kyosuke & Hanayama,Manaho, 2023. "Does the Nobel Peace Prize Improve Women’s Rights? Prize and Praise in International Relations," IDE Discussion Papers 903, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).
    18. Huang, Kaixing & Wang, Jinxia & Huang, Jikun & Findlay, Christopher, 2018. "The potential benefits of agricultural adaptation to warming in China in the long run," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 23(2), pages 139-160, April.
    19. Russell Davidson & James G. MacKinnon, 2015. "Bootstrap Tests for Overidentification in Linear Regression Models," Econometrics, MDPI, vol. 3(4), pages 1-39, December.
    20. Emanuel Ornelas, 2016. "Special and Differential Treatment for Developing Countries," CESifo Working Paper Series 5823, CESifo.
    21. Bloemraad, Irene & Voss, Kim & Silva, Fabiana, 2014. "Framing the Immigrant Movement as about Rights, Family, or Economics: Which Appeals Resonate and for Whom?," Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Working Paper Series qt3b32w33p, Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jlawss:v:4:y:2014:i:1:p:1-15:d:43981. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.