Violence Workers: Police Torturers and Murderers Reconstruct Brazilian Atrocities

by Mika Haritos-Fatouros, Martha K. Huggins, Philip G. Zimbardo

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...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0520234472
• ISBN13: 9780520234475
• Release Date: November 2002
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Length: 314 Pages
• Weight: 0.96 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Police Torturers Examined

An outstanding book, that took courage to put together-- telling with credibility and compassion about the torture to which the Brazilian police & military subjected citizens whom they saw as on the "wrong" side politically. The authors bring to light an evil we thought went out of fashion with the Inquisition -- but here it is again in the 20th century. They make it clear that the propensity to torture is part of the human condition, that comes out in certain times of stress -- and that, sadly, very few people or nations can resist resorting to