This Side of Silence
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Tobias Kelly. This Side of Silence
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This Side of Silence
Bert B. Lockwood, Jr., Series Editor
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Evidence of Torture
The legal recognition of torture is a problem of evidence. Talal Asad has argued that at the heart of the concept of torture is the notion of a universally comparable form of suffering, the precise levels of which can be calculated (2003, 117). However, in practice, torture resists easy measurement. Under most definitions, for an act to be considered torture, along with the direct or indirect involvement of a public official, it must contain at least two further elements: a severe level of pain in the victim and the intention of the perpetrator. However, although pain may be a universal and an inherently social experience, it has famously resisted attempts at replicable measurement. Far from creating an easily replicable standard, the emphasis on pain generates questions about the very subjective nature of the experience. Intention also raises its own often awkward evidentiary issues, as it implies a particular state of mind and therefore requires inferences about private thoughts and beliefs.
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