Violence workers : police torturers and murderers reconstruct Brazilian atrocities / Martha K. Huggins, Mika Haritos-Fatouros, and Philip G. Zimbardo.

Cover image for Violence workers : police torturers and murderers reconstruct Brazilian atrocities / Martha K. Huggins, Mika Haritos-Fatouros, and Philip G. Zimbardo.

ISBN:

9780520928916

9781597349796

9780520234475

Title:

Violence workers : police torturers and murderers reconstruct Brazilian atrocities / Martha K. Huggins, Mika Haritos-Fatouros, and Philip G. Zimbardo.

Author:

Huggins, Martha Knisely, 1944-

Personal Author:

Huggins, Martha Knisely, 1944-

Publication Information:

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xxi, 293 pages) : illustrations

Contents:

List of Tables, Figures, and Photographs; Acknowledgments; Preface; Introduction; 1. Violent Lives; 2. Reconstructing Atrocity; 3. Locating Torturers and Murderers; 4. Deposing Atrocity and Managing Secrecy; 5. Biography Intersects History; 6. Personalistic Masculinity; 7. Bureaucratizing Masculinity; 8. Blended Masculinity; 9. Shaping Identities and Obedience: A Murderous Dynamic; 10. Secret and Insular Worlds of Serial Torturers and Executioners; 11. Moral Universes of Torturers and Murderers; 12. Hung Out to Dry; Conclusion: The Alchemy of Torture and Execution; References; Index.

Local Note:

eBooks on EBSCOhost

Subject Term:

Police brutality -- Brazil.

Political atrocities -- Brazil.

Torture -- Brazil.

Added Author:

Haritos-Fatouros, Mika, 1930-

Zimbardo, Philip G.

Format:

Electronic Resources

Electronic Access:

Click here to view

Publication Date:

2002

Publication Information:

Available:*

Shelf Number	Material Type	Copy	Shelf Location	Status
323.0440981 22	1:E-BOOK	1	1:ONLINE	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

Of the twenty-three Brazilian policemen interviewed in depth for this landmark study, fourteen were direct perpetrators of torture and murder during the three decades that included the 1964-1985 military regime. These "violence workers" and the other group of "atrocity facilitators" who had not, or claimed they had not, participated directly in the violence, help answer questions that haunt today's world: Why and how are ordinary men transformed into state torturers and murderers? How do atrocity perpetrators explain and justify their violence? What is the impact of their murderous deeds--on them, on their victims, and on society? What memories of their atrocities do they admit and which become public history?

Author Notes

Huggins Martha K. :

Martha K. Huggins is Roger Thayer Stone Professor of Sociology at Union College. Her book Political Policing (1998) won two awards. Mika Haritos-Fatouros is Professor of Psychology at the School of Psychology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and author of the forthcoming title, The Psychological Origins of Institutionalized Torture (2003). Philip G. Zimbardo is Professor of Psychology at Stanford University, author of several books, and 2002 President of the American Psychological Association.

Reviews (1)

Choice Review

This is a rare study of how ordinary men turn into career torturers and serial killers in the name of public order and security. The authors interviewed 23 Brazilian policemen. Over half had served as torturers and/or murderers of suspected common criminals and political dissidents. The others were "facilitators" who delivered victims, chauffeured assassins, watched, and helped conceal official atrocities over a period of 30 years. The authors do not construct a complete historical narrative of violent repression during Brazil's military dictatorship. Rather, they develop a social-psychological analysis of the perpetrators of state-sponsored atrocities. They explore how future abusers are recruited and trained, how they are pulled ever deeper into the spiral of torture and murder, how they protect one another and justify what they do, and what toll it takes on them in the course of their careers. As the authors of this remarkable study note, the findings of such research sheds light not only on "violence workers" under similar dictatorships but also on the violence-prone members of specialized crime units in the US. A concluding chapter provides a succinct general overview into how ordinary people become monsters for the state. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. P. R. Sullivan independent scholar