ABSTRACT
Torture is the infliction of physical or psychological pain on a victim to serve as punishment, to elicit information, or to compel assent to a statement issued by the torturer. Torture of slaves was also common in the Roman world, where during the late stage of empire the practice was extended to the poor. After a brief respite following the fall of the Roman Empire, torture emerged again in the High Middle Ages. Medieval torture was strictly governed by legal rules. By the eighteenth century, a movement for the abolition of judicial torture gathered steam. Many of the early cases involved national security and spies, but over time torture spread to encompass routine law enforcement activities. Torture was outlawed by the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights and by the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights. In the United States torture is outlawed by the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits the use of "cruel and unusual punishments."
