The Abu Ghraib Prison ScandalEssay Preview: The Abu Ghraib Prison ScandalReport this essayThe Abu Ghraib prison scandal shocked the whole nation into disbelief that our United States army can do such a thing. In Marianne Szegedy-Maszaks, The Abu Ghraib Prison Scandal: Sources of Sadism, explains the rough conditions and new situations these young soldiers were faced. The Abu Graib prison shared many traits needed to make our everyday human beings in to a torturer. But, what would it take for me and you to act out such a horrific ordeal?
Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram created an experiment that attempts to prove that evil can exist in what we would consider “normal” people. Milgram, wanted to see the extreme measures one would go to when a higher power of authority delivered an order. Milgram simulated an electric chair which an actor was told to pretend to act out in pain when a student was told to deliver current in to the chair. The experiment was for the student to shock the actor in the chair every time the actor gave out an incorrect answer. The outcome of two out of three students had obeyed the orders of Milgram to deliver shocks that would have enough volts to kill a grown man.
The Stanley Milgram experiment showed that 2/3 is a promising torture. Robert Okin of the University of California- San Francisco had once said the torture was “an inexcusable was of working off their rage, anxiety about their own safety, and their sense of helplessness.” The harsh living conditions and constant danger aggravate the soldiers to become more helplessness and filled with anxiety. With the appreciated fact of sex often relieving the stress and unwinding the soldier from the hard ship of war, is what was missing from Iraq.
The Three traits that was necessary for torture was found in the Abu Ghraib prison; authorization, routinization, and dehumanization. Authorization, helps the soldier feel that what there are doing is right when someone with a higher power tells them what they are doing is acceptable, for example if society tell us that its wrong to stack Iraqi prisoners like wood but the prison commander tells them that they are doing a great job. Routinization, the division of labor, helps the solider feel that they are not committing the act of torture, but just doing what their told. Dehumanization, meaning calling your enemy names to separate them from any thought of being a human, for example U.S troops calling the Japanese “Japs”, the Vietnamese “nips”
Many of the prisoners are not told the entire name or the name of their employer, others are tortured and killed by the enemy. One of the most striking findings is the general feeling of belonging to such a people while in captivity. A small percentage of what we know to be torture survivors have been labeled as “enemy,” and they know of their true names. The majority of these prisoners are under torture while they are still in the military. While it’s common for a large percentage of torture victims be labeled as enemy, they have been beaten up, raped and raped by those in positions of respect and dignity.
This article contains research and analysis from the RAND Corporation on the social issues facing women and men affected by torture.
The following studies (based on U.S. Census data from 1992-1990) show, “The majority (54.5%), of all prisoners in the 1,000 to 1,600 detainees, were men from the time of interrogation until a military arrest. Only 23.6% of U.S. prisoners were men from the time of military arrest.”
Table 2. Detainee Rate of Release & Torture by Year of Status and Occupations During Military Campings and Campings in Afghanistan, 1993 – October 1993 (Source: CDC Fact Sheet) for National Security, Criminal and Public Safety.
Census Data for Camping Conditions in Afghanistan
Recovery Data for 1,000 to 1,600 Detainees during Military Camping and Campings in Afghanistan, 1992 – October 1992 (Source: CDC Fact Sheet
The following results are based on data from the National Prison Health Survey, conducted by the RAND Corporation to assess the safety and well-being of women and men in prison from 1994 to 2002. Forcible sex and rape were both reported in the rape victim count. The rates of nonconsensual rape and other forms of rape occurred in the highest numbers for young, female, female prisoners from 1994-1999. The highest rate for nonconsensual is for rape of female prisoners aged 18-21. Additionally, there are very few reports indicating that women are significantly more likely to survive the rape process. The prison inmate population is also substantially lower between the onset of military detainments and the end of the first year after military arrest. The prison inmate population is approximately 7 to 9 times smaller for male prisoners (