ABSTRACT
It is no exaggeration to say that every man and woman is a potential torturer. The scope of this potentiality, and likewise its expression, are extended by the fact that what, by the persecuted party, is recognized as torture, may not, and probably in many circumstances will not, be so recognized or admitted by the individual responsible for putting the torture into operation. This non-recognition or non-acceptance of torture by the individual, by the mob, and, in certain circumstances, by the State, is responsible for the wide extension of persecution in anyone period of history, for its continl.lance through the ages, and for its existence to-day. It is further the cause of the abolition of torture being a much more difficult affair than the average person realizes, involving matters which are outside the scope of ordinary vision and which have implications that are seldom fully recognized.
