Hi (sorry if you're not taking asks right now)! I know that torture can't force someone to comply or obey their captors, but I'm assuming torturers still try this (if not please correct me). If they don't, what other methods do they use to get information? I have a character who is captured and tortured for information, but he doesn't give anything up. Why would torturers bother with it if they're going to be unsuccessful?
Torturers do still try thisand they often claim that what theydo is effective.
The question of whether they actually believe that or not is aninteresting one.
I get the impression that a lot of the time they do honestly andgenuinely believe torture is effective. They are….more than a little delusionaland tend to be rather convinced of their own importance.
But- I think one of the things we need to understand in order topractically tackle torture in the real world is that information really isn’t the point. If it was then torturewould have been abandoned completely a very long time ago.
The point is usually power. Kicking someone lower down the peckingorder. ‘Revenge’ for perceived societal level slights.
How dare those homeless peoplewander into a nice neighbourhood. How darethose minorities ask for the same opportunities as everyone else.
And so on.
Italked a little bit about the reasons torture continues in an ask here.
As you’ll probably be able to tell if you read through the ask the wholething makes me very very angry. Because it isso very pointless and preventable.
So there are ‘reasons’ poor asthey are, even if torturers know they won’t get any information. And generally most torturers do seem tobelieve what they say that torture is ‘effective’.
The extent to which they believe that doesn’t change the facts.
As for how people get information- well that depends on whether you meaninvestigators or torturers.
Torturers generally don’t tryanything that isn’t torture. I’ll talk more about that in a moment but I’d liketo cover genuine investigation first.
Genuine investigators usually won’t put much stock ininterviews/interrogation, talking to suspects isn’t a particularly good way to get information.
Igo into more detail on genuine investigation here but the crux of it isthat people willingly volunteering information is the backbone of police workand without it policing systems can’t function. Systematic forensicinvestigation also makes asignificant contribution. Watching people, mapping their routine and contacts,going through their documents, emails, phone records and so forth. Those areall possibilities for getting good, accurate information.
Torturers don’t do any of thosethings.
They tend to suffer from something Rejali called ‘deskilling’. Inessence when they start to torture they stopdoing everything else. And that means they gradually lose the skills theylearnt previously. They’re out of practice. They miss blindingly obviousthings.
As an example Rejali quotes a case where a particular police departmentarrested a suspected terrorist. They confiscated his phone and computer. Theystarted torturing him. They tortured him for days without realising the information they wanted was on his computer.No body checked, they didn’t eventurn the damn thing on.
That’s typical of how torturers operate.
They also have a toxic and corrosive effect on any organisation they’repart of.
They tend to basically split an organisation into torturers and peoplewho follow the rules. A group of people who shouldbe working together in order to achieve a goal, such as a police departmenttrying to get information, gets divided in two. The two groups spend most oftheir time trying to get around each other.
Sometimes it gets so bad that the group fractures completely and the twofactions start killing each other. That’s not an exaggeration, (it happened inBrazil and Rejaligoes into it in some depth if you’re interested).
The presence of torturers effectively hampers the investigative abilityof any organisation they’re part of. Both by having large numbers of people whoare torturing rather than working and by the strong negative effect torturershave on the people around them who actually areworking.
In addition to this the presence of torturers makes people much lesslikely to volunteer information. That cuts off a major source of informationand hampers investigations further.
So- basically torturers don’tuse methods of investigation and their presence in an organisation hamperspeople around them who do.
But there’s nothing about the scenario that you’ve outlined that’simplausible.
What you have is a good andrealistic use of torture in fiction.
If you feel more motivation is necessary for some or all of yourtorturers then I do have a couple of masterposts that might help, as well asthe ask I linked to earlier.So this one here is how Rejali classifies torture in democratic countries,it talks a bit about the systems that encourage torture and stated motivations.
I think you might also get something from some of the little studies Idid of torture being used for different ‘reasons’. I came up with this divisionto help writers so it’s a pretty different approach to Rejali. I think the poston Syria,focused on humiliating victims, the post on the Mau-Mau,focused on maiming victims and the post on Haitiand the slave trade, where torture was used to terrorise a large section ofthe population, would all be helpful for you.
Honestly though? I don’t think you’ve got much to worry about.
I hope this helps. :)
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