RT Article
T1 Understanding and preventing torture: a review of the literature
JF Human rights review
VO 24
IS 3
SP 319
OP 338
A1 Einolf, Christopher J. 1969-
LA English
YR 2023
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1862623031
AB This article reviews the social scientific literature on the causes of and prevention of torture, analyzes its successes and failures, and proposes a way forward. Many researchers have adopted a rational-actor, principal-agent framework, which fails to fully account for the multiple and often irrational motives of actors who work within complex bureaucracies. Researchers have also tended to follow the lead of practitioners, critiquing their approaches at prevention but not providing their own evidence-based recommendations. Future research should examine the role of irrational motives, multiple actors, and complex bureaucracies in causing torture to happen, at the level of individuals, governmental institutions, and nation-states. The lessons from this research can help advocates better convince individual actors that torture is unethical and ineffective, better direct interventions into the structure of complex bureaucracies, and better direct international advocacy, providing other solutions besides “naming and shaming” campaigns.
K1 Naming and shaming
K1 Principal-agent theory
K1 Rational-actor theory
K1 Torture prevention
DO 10.1007/s12142-023-00696-2