can torture be justified?

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Recently in the UK there has been a case of four men raping a child. Only one was caught and convicted on incontrovertible evidence. Should he be tortured to make him reveal the identities of the other three?

We - or most of us - would probably agree that criminals have a right not to be tortured. We would also agree that children have the right not to be raped. I would give greater importance to the second of these rights.

The three unidentified child rapists have got away with it once (or possibly more than once) and must be dangerous in the extreme. The probability that they will rape more children is high.

Would torture be appropriate in ANY cases..say someone who knew plans for a terrorist attack etc?..or pilots who knew plans to bomb a city?
 
Billy Chyldyshe said:
recently in the UK there has been a case of four men raping a child. Only one was caught and convicted on incontrovertible evidence. Should he be tortured to make him reveal the identities of the other three?...
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YES! Or just hand him over to the families of the children.
 
Orleander said:
YES! Or just hand him over to the families of the children.
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I'd think that instead of that why not make a deal with him to somehow reduce his sentence if he turns them over. I'm not trying to make him get off the hook, but would rather see all involved serving time instead of only one.
 
You can never allow torture on a jurisdictional level, it would be the beginning of the end.
On a personal level it might sometimes be justified. If it were my kid and I got to the rapist before the police did.. I'd torture the hell out of him. And I believe that would be more than justified.. although I would go to jail for it.
 
some good ol street justice would make him spill the beans. hand him over to me i will have him snitching on everybody in less than 1 hour.

*gets out his bamboo stick, candles and a lighter*


peace.
 
This kind of problem isn't new to police, and there are ways of dealing with it short of breaking the law themselves.
 
Billy Chyldyshe said:
Recently in the UK there has been a case of four men raping a child. Only one was caught and convicted on incontrovertible evidence. Should he be tortured to make him reveal the identities of the other three?

We - or most of us - would probably agree that criminals have a right not to be tortured. We would also agree that children have the right not to be raped. I would give greater importance to the second of these rights.

The three unidentified child rapists have got away with it once (or possibly more than once) and must be dangerous in the extreme. The probability that they will rape more children is high.

Would torture be appropriate in ANY cases..say someone who knew plans for a terrorist attack etc?..or pilots who knew plans to bomb a city?
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No, simply because you can't make "special" cases with law. Thus it would be abused by enforcement in other cases that it shouldn't be.

Frankly I have a problem with giving any modern police or judicial force ANY corporal punishment abilities.

The fact is they abuse it.

The fact is the law cannot "protect", it can only punish, or attempt to rehabilitate(which they usually suck at or don't even try). It is up to the private citizen to protect their family from attack. No matter what anybody tells you.
 
Sleep deprivation has a way of getting people to talk and its usually not called torture.
 
Torture cannot be justified under any means; by torturing someone, you are making hatred define you.
 
If you were being tortured wouldn't you tell your torturers anything - and I mean anything, true or not - to make them stop?

So no, it's a silly idea.
 
Wisdom_Seeker said:
Torture cannot be justified under any means; by torturing someone, you are making hatred define you.
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This is utter nonsense. When torture is done to get information from terrorists to save lives it is actually done for altruistic purposes. Sort of like nukes are used to stop an invasion before it starts.
 
The usual response from the bloodthirsty masses I see.
Not everyone held, accused, charged, or even convicted is guilty, think about that as you insist on torturing people; before the whole world turns into Guantanamo.:rolleyes:
 
I have no problem with torturing a guilty child rapist, but there's always a chance that you are inflicting torture on an innocent person.
 
I agree, we should definitely torture the guilty ones but, if anyone tortures the innocent ones, they should be tortured too. Unless they say didn't do it.
 
cosmictraveler said:
I'd think that instead of that why not make a deal with him to somehow reduce his sentence if he turns them over. I'm not trying to make him get off the hook, but would rather see all involved serving time instead of only one.
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he raped a young girl he should not be allowed out early because he gave the name of the others to the police, they should all be put in prison and not a softly softly prison!
 
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