Katana Smith
ENG 100 Assignment #3: Film-Based Argument Efficacy of Torture in America In Slumdog Millionaire, screenwriter Simon Beaufoy shares the story of Jamal, a boy who grew up in the slum neighborhoods of India and managed to gain a spot on the gameshow, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Throughout the film, Jamal is shown as a person who must overcome many obstacles to survive, including an experience of torture when he provides the correct answers to too many gameshow questions. Jamal’s torture does not reveal the confession his torturers are seeking because Jamal is telling the truth. Torture has been a controversial topic across the world and in America in particular. Research has shown that torture is not an effective method to gain intelligence because it is illegal, leads to false answers, and it creates a global mistrust of the people enforcing the torture. Part of the eighth amendment in the United States prohibits the state and federal governments from imposing cruel and unusual punishment. Cruel and unusual punishment is defined by Merriam-Webster as punishment that is offensive to the contemporary morality or jurisprudence (as by being degrading, inflicting unnecessary and intentional pain, or being disproportionate to the offense). I would say that torturing someone violently in order to get them to tell you what you want to hear is a form of cruel and unusual punishment. Torture is a violation of human rights. The interrogation method is a more effective and legal way to get someone to talk. Not only is torture illegal, it’s also very ineffective when it comes to finding the answers you’re looking for. When military agents torture suspects, many times these victims provide false answers to stop the pain they feel from the torture. In the article, Torture Is a Crime, Curt Goering says “Time and again, our clients tell us that they would—and did—say anything to make the torture stop. This is true for victims subjected to physical torture as well as psychological torture. It has been proven that torture is far more likely to produce ambiguous and false, rather than clear and reliable, information.”. When people are subjected to extreme pain, physically or emotionally, they go into survival mode and will say or do anything to get out of the situation they are in. In the article, The neuroscience of interrogation: Why torture doesn’t work, Carol Elliott says “Interrogators often escalate torture when they think a suspect is withholding information or lying, but there is no good evidence that interrogators are better than the rest of us at detecting lies. In fact, there is evidence that when people are trained as interrogators, they become more likely to think others are lying to them. This belief can lead to alarming errors, whereby people are tortured because their torturer wrongly believes they are lying.”. As you can see, torture can be very unreliable. In addition to torture victims providing false answers, torture also leads to a global mistrust of the people and/or governments that enact the torture. Many times, the people in charge of torturing the suspects are people of power. These are the people that we are supposed to trust as Americans, as they are somewhat in control of our safety. Most of them will do whatever they have to do to the victims because they are getting paid significantly for their services. In the article, Torture: Ineffective, Illegal, and Unprincipled, Steve Cohen says “If the people who are responsible for enforcing our laws—and our principles—violate those laws and principles, it fosters disrespect for all principles and laws.”. How can we trust our government if they are illegally torturing people and intentionally trying to hide it from us? While people have many different ways of viewing torture, I am personally against it. I believe there is more evidence of torture being ineffective rather than effective. Although there have been cases where it was believed that torture was beneficial, the times where is wasn’t are much greater. Steve Cohen says, “We do not need to use brutal tactics to reduce criminal behavior. Vigilance, intelligence, skill and strategic thinking are far more effective.”. It’s not worth risking peoples’ lives and mental health if there is no guarantee that the outcome will help solve the problem. After doing more research, I have concluded that torture is an ineffective way to find the answers you’re looking for because it is illegal, leads to false answers, and it creates a global mistrust of the people enforcing the torture.
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