ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that torture that is nurtured, supported and justified by a political state, whether authoritarian or formally democratic, and by such states' private sector counterparts, is best explained through a systemic model of state torture. Based on prior research (Huggins et al. 2002) into torture in Brazil, I concluded that: (a) state torture is not a function of ‘deviant’ psychology; (b) it is not the product of one particular presidential administration or form of government; (c) changes in government administration will not eliminate state torture; (d) state torture is a product of the ‘normal’ and rational political organization of states; and (e) formally democratic states can have torture systems. With these premises in hand, by late 2004 — particularly after the Abu Ghraib 60 Minutes II exposé, the publication of the Taguba (2004) and Fay (2004) reports, and the investigative reporting of Hirsch (2004b) and Brody (2004 and 2005) — it became possible to use the practices at Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib to widen the predictive powers of the ‘torture essentials’ model I was beginning to develop (Huggins 2002).
