Term: Torture

Any of a wide set of techniques that use mental, emotional, or especially physical pain, often with the intent of obtaining (some would say coercing) the admission of information such as guilt for breaking a law. During the Inquisition, torture was used on people suspected of Witchcraft in order to get them to admit to the “crime.” In some cases, the confession wouldn’t be accepted without torture. 

During the Inquisition, as now, the definition of what constituted torture (as used by the torturers and those authorizing torture), was extremely limited. It was said that if there were no bones broken, a confession was obtained “without torture.” Yelling, lying, slapping, enforced wakefulness, and denial of food or water, threatening family members, etc., were not legally considered torture.

Although the use of torture is popular in fiction, most experts declare that torture is ineffective for obtaining truth as victims will say anything in order to get the pain to stop.

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