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Unspeakable Acts, Ordinary People: The Dynamics of Torture
 
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Unspeakable Acts, Ordinary People: The Dynamics of Torture (Paperback)

by John Conroy (Author)
2.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 240 pages
  • Publisher: VISION Paperbacks (8 Mar 2001)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1901250490
  • ISBN-13: 978-1901250497
  • Product Dimensions: 21.2 x 13.8 x 2.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 543,161 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Product Description
In the Western world torture is considered to be a practice confined to the developing world and the Middle Ages. This book examines proven cases of torture by the military and police in the UK, USA and Israel to analyze the motivations which drive ordinary people to commit such unspeakable acts.

From the Publisher
A shocking and compassionate book
In the western world we consider torture to be a practise confined to the developing world and the Middle Ages. However, torture is used by the military and the police all across the so-called developed world. This shocking and compassionate book looks at specific cases in the UK, the US and Israel where torture was used by governmental forces, and examines how and why it happened.

Author John Conroy has deliberately chosen cases that were taken to court and proven. In this way, there is no doubt that torture took place, enabling him to freely examine the motivation behind the torture, and why it was allowed to happen. In Chicago, a division of the police force routinely tortured suspects with electrodes. In Belfast, army officers tortured innocent Irish Catholics in order to ‘practise’ before questioning IRA suspects. In Israel, soldiers were ordered to torture Palestinian men, to deliberately inspire fear in the local community.

This is a unique book in that it interviews both torturers and their victims, and establishes the facts of each case, without casting judgement. Written with the pace and suspense of a thriller, the book examines what enables torturers to commit atrocities others find unimaginable. Conroy poses the question how do such ordinary people commit such unspeakable acts?

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, with warnings to us all, limited by its bias., 18 Dec 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: Unspeakable Acts, Ordinary People: The Dynamics of Torture (Paperback)
I found this book very interesting, more than a little disturbing and certainly made me want to learn more about the subject. The book mainly consists of three studies of incidents of torture/brutality by three governments. It also has many anecdotes about other incidents of violence or torture by governments and organisations.
The book is not an even-handed, analytical look at torture with some comments from the author regarding the morality of the actions. The author sets out events, which he deems to be torture and are therefore wrong and that it would be easy for any of us to become the torturer as well as the tortured. It is more of a moral work than an analytical one.
The studies, especially of the Northern Ireland case, do not put the incidents in context with the situation in the area as a whole and makes little or no mention of the problems that faced the people who carried out the acts. It also makes little mention of the norms of acceptable behaviour, which existed at the time and in the areas where the events took place. I would go so far as to say that the book almost comes across as propaganda. This unfortunately detracts from the strength of the authors' arguments as the reader is left with the impression that the whole story has not been told. The book was almost a very powerful work with warnings to us all, but the aforementioned apparent lack of objectivity, limits its validity.
It is still an interesting read nonetheless.
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Deepened my understanding, but took work to get there..., 8 Feb 2005
By A Customer
This is not a bad book. Most of the analysis: into the effects torture has on the individual, into the people and their motivations for torturing etc are excellent, thorough and thought provoking.
However, the book suffers from three fatal flaws. 1 - the book only really discusses three incidents of what the author calls torture. these are police brutality, Israel soldiers beating Palestinians and English troops truly torturing Irish men. Why limit the book to these cases just because the evidence discussed has been ratified in a court room? That is not really necessary (we can evaluate the truth or not of someone claim by ourselves if need be) and means that the books' scope is unfortunately limited. 2 - the author uses court established evidence, as i mention. However, unfortunately he spends approx 1/2 the book running through the minute details of the court proceedings. I did not want to read a book on court cases about torture. 3 - the book skips between these three stories and the general insights into torture in a rather distracting manner; just when some analysis is getting interesting he jerks you back to Northern Ireland or a court room in Israel. I think given the unfortunate frequency of torture in the world there was no need to limit himself to these three cases. Finally two of these cases i really don't classify as torture in the sense that someone wishing to understand torture, with illustrative stories, would seek out. The police brutality case brings home that torture is not a 2nd/3rd world issue which is an important reminder. But it was a cop killer and, so US police can be a little rough&tough - tell me something i don't know... The Israeli case was just a beating on a hillside. The author claim it shows that torture can only take minutes to occur.. but really it was just a beating; not very nice, and interesting to evidence the Israeli manner of containing 'the Palestinian problem', but there is better case studies available.
To summarise; My understanding has been deepened, but it took a lot of work to get there
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