Sexual Torture Research Articles

The Patriarchal Standards of Rape in Society

It is astonishing to see a civilized nation being defined by a culture such as rape. A rape culture is evident in society and it is being achieved through the condoning and normalization of physical, mental and sexual torture that women are subjected to. Norms are created in society through attitudes, beliefs, customs and rituals. Rape has been embedded in our culture and hence it is seen as normal. Due to the normalization of such assaults society perceives rape as something inevitable. Rape has been accepted as a part of society. But how has this normalization occurred? The media is an influential medium through which the people form their opinions. Whether it be newspapers, novels or television channels, all of these mediums propagate one point of view. Sadly all the mediums have a massive amount of material that trivializes and eroticizes rape. It is due to the collective tone set by the media that a synthesis between rape and culture has led to the rape culture becoming a part of our society.

Unity in Rupture

Unity in Rupture

Hidden Truth in the Body of Euclia: Page duBois’ Torture and Truth and Acts of Andrew

This essay explores the representation of Euclia, a female slave whose story is found within the narrative of Acts of Andrew. I read this early Christian text alongside Page duBois’ Torture and Truth and Slaves and Other Objects and, through a focus on Euclia’s story, analyze the relationship among slavery, gender, torture, and truth as represented in this text. In order to explore these issues, I compare the representations of the bodies of Euclia, the slave, with Maximilla, the free elite woman. In doing so I argue that Maximilla’s body is undeniably “untouchable” while Euclia’s body is vulnerable to sexual abuse and torture. Additionally, I track the “truth” within the narrative as presented by various characters in the text; I argue that both the gender and status of the character shape the view of “truth” found in each characterization. Through this reading I suggest that truth is hidden within the female body of the slave, Euclia. This application of duBois’ scholarship to an early Christian narrative illuminates the intricate relationship between slavery and gender as well as torture and truth.

Exploring Female Genital Cutting Among Survivors of Torture.

Though the practice of female genital cutting (FGC) has been framed as a form of gender-based torture, few studies have examined the prevalence and impact of the practice among documented survivors of torture. This article presents a secondary analysis of data from 514 African-born women at an interdisciplinary clinic for survivors of torture. Results indicate few demographic differences between those who experienced FGC and those who had not, though a larger proportion of the FGC group were West African and identified as Muslim. Many with FGC were in the process of applying for asylum, reported sexual and psychological torture, and cited gender as a basis for their persecution. The FGC group evidenced unique correlates related to immigration status and psychological and sexual torture experiences that the non-FGC group did not. Findings indicate that female survivors of torture with FGC represent a distinct group with specific mental health needs.

The Cry for Human Rights: Violence, Transition, and the Egyptian Revolution

This paper interrogates moments in which American corporate media, the U.S. government, and U.S. academic discourses have relied upon what we call a liberal-Orientalist “cry for human rights” to represent the Egyptian revolution. We focus on U.S. public discussions regarding: 1) the process of transition following the Egyptian revolution, and 2) violence—specifically, gendered sexual violence and torture in Egypt. We are particularly concerned with how this framing of human rights both relies upon and reinforces global neoliberalism and its attendant forms of violence. We argue that analyses framed as a “cry for human rights” fail to account for the complex and dynamic historical and political contexts in which violence and transition take place, and the multiple, interconnected structures of power that impact revolutionary change. Far from questioning the value of protecting women’s rights or human rights, our goals are to examine the limitations inherent to liberal-Orientalist epistemological frameworks and highlight the connections between interpersonal violence, Egyptian state violence, and U.S.-led imperial practices in Egypt.

Intimate partner violence as seen in post-conflict eastern Uganda: prevalence, risk factors and mental health consequences.

BackgroundConflict and post-conflict communities in sub-Saharan Africa have a high under recognised problem of intimate partner violence (IPV). Part of the reason for this has been the limited data on IPV from conflict affected sub-Saharan Africa. This paper reports on the prevalence, risk factors and mental health consequences of IPV victimisation in both gender as seen in post-conflict eastern Uganda.MethodsA cross-sectional survey was carried out in two districts of eastern Uganda. The primary outcome of IPV victimisation was assessed using a modified Intimate Partner Violence assessment questionnaire of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.ResultsThe prevalence of any form of IPV victimisation (physical and/or sexual and/or psychological IPV) in this study was 43.7 % [95 % CI, 40.1–47.4 %], with no statistically significant difference between the two gender. The factors significantly associated with IPV victimisation were: sub-county (representing ecological factors), poverty, use of alcohol, and physical and sexual war torture experiences. The mental health problems associated with IPV victimisation were probable problem alcohol drinking, attempted suicide and probable major depressive disorder.ConclusionIn post-conflict eastern Uganda, in both gender, war torture was a risk factor for IPV victimisation and IPV victimisation was associated with mental health problems.

Grotesque eroticism in the Danmei genre: the case of Lucifer's Club in Chinese cyberspace

ABSTRACTThis article explores the element of grotesque eroticism in the description of male homosexual romance in online fiction produced by and for heterosexual females in the Greater China area. The element of grotesque porn/eroticism consists of scenes of rape, gang-rape, incest, sado-masochism, sexual torture and scientific impossibilities such as male pregnancy. A case study of the fan-oriented website Lucifer's Club aims at positioning the phenomenon of Danmei (homoerotic writings by and for heterosexual females) within the larger field of pornography. The element of homosexual porn in a grotesque form is analyzed from the perspective of female voyeurism and the concept of the female gaze. By producing and consuming Danmei, the article argues, heterosexual females in Chinese cyberspace explore and test the boundaries of their own female sexuality.

Guidelines for Conducting a Victim-Sensitive Interview

Victim sensitive interviews allow the adult investigator to gather vital facts from a child. Within these interviews, the investigator is provided with an opportunity to elicit responses from the child regarding allegations that have taken place. These allegations often have many origins and may involve sexual impropriety, abuse, taunting, and torture of a physical nature, verbal nature, or both. The purpose of this article is to provide standardized guidelines that can assist individuals from various occupational fields in conducting victim sensitive interviews. The standardized guidelines provided offer an assemblage of general principles that have consistently appeared within literature as well as in manuals provided by various jurisdictions. These guidelines refer to a practice of conduct that is recommended; however, variance with implementation is allowed. It is assumed that the reader brings a level of clinical experience to the material provided in this article.

Cuerpo, sexualidad y violencia simbólica en la tortura sexual

This article is an approach to the phenomenon of torture, particularly sexual torture, and it aims to inquire into the common interpretative frameworks that are constructed in the sexual torture exerted over the individual bodies, as metaphorical representations of the social body, within the context of political violence. Through a phenomenological approach and a characterization of torture in its social, physical, psychological and sexual dimensions, it argues that sexual torture, as a communicative act, forces the subject to participate in its own victimization when its body orifices are used as tools of torture. It concludes that only the scream of the victim remains as an opportunity to articulate the pain with the experience of violence, the main purpose of which is to feminize the enemy as a strategy of symbolic domination by flooding the subject with sexual stimuli to alter its relationship with its own body.

Unsilencing Sexual Torture: Responses to Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Denmark

Debates around torture have proliferated in the past decade, placing the topic more centrally in criminological studies and research. However, the ways in which torture is recognized or responded to often pivot on narrow legalistic definitions which do not necessarily incorporate the gendered nature of torturous violence, and in particular sexual torture. In developing a regional case study focussed on Denmark, this article critically addresses the ways in which sexual torture is silenced in terms of state and organizational responses to survivors. Additionally, the increasingly punitive ways in which states respond to asylum seekers more generally means that impacts of torture, sexual torture and persecution can be compounded by structural conditions which ultimately exacerbate social, emotional, physical and psychological effects of violence.

Ingénue Saxancour, ou, La femme séparée

Mary Trouille's masterful critical edition of Rétif's 1788 novel aims to make this distressing portrait of domestic violence in the late eighteenth-century context available to a broader audience. Ingénue is a fictionalized account of Rétif's daughter Agnès's marriage to her abusive husband Charles-Marie Augé over her father's objections, told in the first person from the daughter's point of view, and a part of which had earlier appeared in La Femme infidelle (1786). Ingénue (Agnès) describes her systematic isolation, estrangement from her family, learned passivity, degradation, and emotional, physical, and sexual torture at the hands of her violent abuser Moresquin (Augé), in a period in which a husband is effectively ‘un maître […] qui a des droits sur notre corps, sur notre âme, sur notre pudeur, sur notre chasteté même, sur le bonheur ou le malheur de tous nos instants’ (p. 147). Although Trouille cautions that Ingénue remains a ‘complex blend of fact and fiction’ (p. 34) that draws some of its most shocking incidents of sexual abuse from other sources (and Trouille quotes Pierre Testud, who observes that ‘Rétif avait l'imaginaire très fécond en ce domaine’ (p. 26, n. 8)), her comprehensive notes and introductory essays work to correlate the events of Ingénue's narrative with those of Agnès's marriage, while Appendices include a chronology of Agnès's life drawn from Rétif's diaries, and excerpts from his correspondence. This emphasis on the novel's biographical and documentary value also informs Trouille's analysis of Rétif's motivations in publishing Ingénue. In the novel's Preface Rétif's narrator claims that the horrors it documents are offered as a caution ‘aux filles qui se marient malgré leurs parents et surtout en bravant l'autorité sacrée d'un père éclairé’ (p. 56); nonetheless, as Trouille observes, this didactic purpose is only one of a complex of motives including Rétif's guilt at failing to intervene sooner to rescue Agnès from her abuser, and his desire for vengeance against his son-in-law, culminating in the rivalrous enmity and contest between the rights of fathers and those of husbands recounted in the novel's final pages. However, Trouille's notes point to a more disturbing aspect of Rétif's investment in recounting the details of Agnès's abuse. The author's diaries suggest that he begins incestuous relations with Agnès ‘less than a week after the novel was completed’ (p. 27) and that this liaison also re-enacts elements of the violence of her relationship with Augé: ‘querelle, mal foutu Senga [Agnès]’; ‘Senga m'a refusé’; ‘le soir Senga malgré elle’; ‘Senga foutue sévèrement’; ‘querelle Agnès coup tête’ (p. 29). Is Rétif's impulse to write Ingénue driven not only by guilt and compassion but by an identification with his son-in-law's ‘rage lubrique’ (p. 109), in which case the narrative repeats Agnès's abuse even while deploring it? Such are the questions that this meticulous new edition of Ingénue Saxancour invites scholars and students of Rétif to reconsider.

Southeast Asian Hesitation: ASEAN Countries and the International Criminal Court

In one of his final press releases, the former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar, Tomás Ojea Quintana, urged that greater attention be given to the further deterioration of the human rights situation in Rakhine State. He submitted that the discrimination and persecution against the Rohingya community in Rakhine could amount to crimes against humanity. In his final report, prior to the end of his six-year mandate, Quintana states that “extrajudicial killing, rape, and other forms of sexual violence, arbitrary detention, torture, and ill-treatment in detention, denial of due process and fair trial rights, and the forcible transfer and severe deprivation of liberty of populations has taken place on a large scale and has been directed against” the Rohingya Muslim population in Rakhine State. However, there is no sign that any of the alleged crimes are being adequately investigated by the competent domestic authorities. Furthermore, the ICC does not have jurisdiction as Myanmar is not a State Party to the Rome Statute.

Sexual torture of Palestinian men by Israeli authorities

In the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, arrests and imprisonment of Palestinian men in their early adulthood are common practice. The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) collected thousands of testimonies of Palestinian men allegedly tortured or ill-treated by Israeli authorities. There are many types of torture, sexual torture being one of them. This study is based on the PCATI database during 2005-2012, which contains 60 cases – 4% of all files in this period – with testimonies of alleged sexual torture or ill-treatment. It is a first in the investigation of torture and ill-treatment of a sexual nature, allegedly carried out by Israeli security authorities on Palestinian men. Findings show that sexual ill-treatment is systemic, with 36 reports of verbal sexual harassment, either directed toward Palestinian men and boys or toward family members, and 35 reports of forced nudity. Moreover, there are six testimonies of Israeli officials involved in physical sexual assault of arrested or imprisoned Palestinian men. Physical assault in most cases concerned pressing and/or kicking the genitals, while one testimony pertained to simulated rape, and another described an actual rape by means of a blunt object. The article provides illustrations of the various types of sexual torture and ill-treatment of boys and men in the light of existing literature, and recommendations.

Girl child soldiers

Journal of Paediatrics and Child HealthVolume 50, Issue 9 p. 742-743 Heads UpFree Access Girl child soldiers First published: 25 August 2014 https://doi.org/10.1111/jpc.12700_4AboutSectionsPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Much has been written about child soldiers. A recent review estimated that 40% are girls, a total of about 120 000 girls world-wide.1 Girls are vulnerable to sexual abuse, torture and psychological trauma, with a huge long-term impact on their mental, physical and reproductive health. Almost half of girl soldiers describe their primary role as ‘fighters’, other roles being cooks, kitchen hands, performing menial tasks, etc. Children are often considered expendable and may be used in ambushes, as human shields, to sweep minefields and on suicide missions. At least a third of survivors have combat injuries. Girls forced into excessive manual labour frequently have back injuries. Some armed groups give children drugs and alcohol prior to battle and addiction hampers rehabilitation. Girl soldiers are often raped or ‘given as a wife’ and risk sexually transmitted infections, pregnancy, genital tract injury and lifelong psychological scarring. This deeply disturbing but very informative review suggests how health-care professionals from high-income countries can contribute to prevention and to rehabilitation of girl soldiers.1 Reference 1Stevens AJ. Arch. Dis. Child. 2014; 99: 458– 462. CrossrefWeb of Science®Google Scholar Reviewer: David Isaacs, Children's Hospital at Westmead (david.isaacs@health.nsw.gov.au) Volume50, Issue9September 2014Pages 742-743 ReferencesRelatedInformation

Violencia contra la mujer y respuesta punitiva.

El presente artículo de reflexión estudia la manera como el derecho castiga a los infractores de la ley penal cuando han cometido conductas punibles en contra de las mujeres. Para esto se contextualiza la teoría feminista y la consagración legal de los instrumentos que protegen los derechos de aquellas, finalizando con un estudio de casos, los cuales se encuentran relacionados con (i) el homicidio de Rosa Elvira Cely, antecedido por el acceso carnal violento y la tortura ejercida en su contra por parte de Javier Velasco, (ii) la violencia sexual perpetrada por el cónyuge o compañero permanente (en abstracto) y (iii) las “injurias por vía de hecho”, denominación está última como nuestra Corte Suprema de Justicia ha calificado la manipulación fugaz de las partes íntimas de la mujer.

Retrospective study of positive physical torture cases in Cairo (2009 &2010)

Torture is the most serious violation of a person's fundamental right to personal integrity and a pathological form of human interaction. In this study, the prevalence of torture in Cairo during the years 2009 & 2010 is 10.97% of the total number of cases examined at the medico legal authority of Egypt in Zenhom (11.29% in 2010 & 10.36% in 2009). The number of cases under this study is 367 (175 cases in 2009, 192 cases in 2010). Torture is more prevalent in the year 2010 than in the year 2009. The largest prevalence of torture was found in the area of south Cairo (120 cases; 32.7%) while the least was found in the area of west Cairo (50 cases; 13.6%). The victims included 336 males (91.6%) and 31 females (8.4%) with male to female ratio 10.8: 1. The most commonly affected age group in the studied victims was the age group of the third decade (171 cases; 46.6%) while the least was the age group above the sixth decade (6 cases; 1.6%). The most commonly affected site of injury was head & neck (243 cases; 66.2%) while the least was abdomen (17 cases; 4.6%). The most common type of injury was bruises (258 cases; 70.3%) while the least was electrocution (5 cases; 1.4%). Regarding the causal instrument, the most commonly used instrument was blunt object (333 cases; 90.7%) while the least was electric current (5 cases; 10%). Hitting with a stick leaving the characteristic shape of elongated abrasion & bruises was found in 35 cases (9.5%) and characteristic lesion of handcuff, which is blunt trauma wounds around wrists or ankles, was found in 68 cases (18.5%). There was one case of hair torture (0.3%) & 5 cases of sexual torture (1.5%). Permanent infirmity left in victims was positive in 24 cases (6.5%) and negative in 343 cases (93.5%) while deformity left in victims was positive in 10 cases (3%) and negative in 357 cases (97%). All permanent infirmity cases were male. Of the 24 cases of permanent infirmity, 83.3% were subjected to blunt trauma and 79.2% were injured in the upper limbs & this is statistically significant.

Efficacy of narrative exposure therapy in the treatment of children and adolescent patients with posttraumatic stress disorder: a systematic review protocol

Review question/objective The objective of this review is to identify the efficacy of narrative exposure therapy in the treatment of children and adolescent patients with posttraumatic stress disorder. Background The most prominent disorder related to traumatic experiences is posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that has specific symptoms which occur in response to trauma exposure as determined by the Diagnostic Staticall Manual (DSM). Among individuals exposed to trauma, approximately 25% to 30% develop PTSD with the rate of the disorder depending on the experience of trauma.1 PTSD is often caused by traumatic events like sexual abuse, physical maltreatment, car accidents, criminal attacks, bombings, rape or torture.2 It has been estimated that most Americans (81.7%) will be exposed to a trauma during their lifetime3 and 6.8% will meet criteria for PTSD at some point in their lives.4 Epidemiologic community surveys in war-torn areas found PTSD point prevalence rates between 15% and 50% among different refugee populations.5 Studies have suggested functional impairment occurs in traumatized children including problems with cognitive and school performance. A survey on trauma-related impairment in children in Sri Lanka showed that 25% of the severe trauma experienced children met the criteria for a diagnosis of PTSD. The traumatized children reported problems with their daily life such as problems in school performance, social withdrawal, depressive symptoms and poor physical health.6 Randomized controlled treatment trials have revealed that trauma-focused treatments can effectively ease symptoms in patients who suffer from PTSD.2,7 Narrative exposure therapy (NET) was recently developed as a standardized, short-term treatment that focuses exclusively on the reconstruction of episodic trauma memory through a detailed and emotional narration of the biography, with particular emphasis on the traumatic events and a focus on achieving habituation to the emotional responses at the end. Therefore, this treatment can potentially preclude a mixture of therapeutic methods such as the application of both psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy in a single patient. University of Konstanz, Germany studied the efficacy of NET as evaluated in a randomized controlled trial in Sudanese refugees living in a Ugandan refugee settlement who were diagnosed as suffering from PTSD. The results indicated that NET is an approach that shows potential for the treatment of PTSD in refugees living in unsafe conditions.8 Instead of asking the patient to define a single event, which is difficult in repeated and multiple traumas, asking the patient to construct a narrative of their whole life with therapist assistance is encouraging.9 Thus, this idea indicates NET is better in assessing many traumatic life events in a patient's life in a more timely and organized way than other psychotherapies. Since PTSD is a problem, there is no clear first choice treatment for the problem. Several randomized controlled trials have showed the efficacy of NET; however there is no existing evidence based review on this topic so this review will be important.

Anal Torture with Unknown Objects and Electrical Stimuli

Sexual violence in prisons constitutes an act of torture which has been used to a widespread in war situations as in former Yugoslavia and Chechnya. However, especially in Islamic countries sexual violence to men has been neglected because of cultural based stigma of the issue. Sexual torture has serious mental, physical and sexual health consequences. This paper describes the physical long-term effect of anal torture in an adult man in prison. Examination was performed following the Istanbul Protocol guidelines. A prolonged relaxation time of the anus as a sign of sphincter insufficiency could be an evidence of traumatic damage of anal sphincter by such kind of torture.

Sexual Violence and Torture in International Criminal Law

Sexual Violence and Torture in International Criminal Law

Psychiatric disorders and psychosocial correlates of high HIV risk sexual behaviour in war-affected Eastern Uganda

This article sets out to investigate the psychiatric and psychosocial risk factors for high risk sexual behaviour in a war-affected population in Eastern Uganda. A cross-sectional survey was carried out in four sub-counties in two districts in Eastern Uganda where 1560 randomly selected respondents (15 years and above) were interviewed. The primary outcome was a derived variable “high risk sexual behaviour” defined as reporting at least one of eight sexual practices that have been associated with HIV transmission in Uganda and which were hypothesised could arise as a consequence of psychiatric disorder or psychosocial problems. Multivariable logistic regression was used to assess factors associated with high risk sexual behaviour in this population. Males were more likely to have at least one “high risk sexual behaviour” than females (11.8% vs. 9.1% in the last year). Sex outside marriage was the most commonly reported high risk sexual behaviour. Among males, the factors independently associated with high risk sexual behaviour were: being married, belonging to non-Catholic/non-Protestant religions, poverty, being a victim of intimate partner violence and having a major depressive disorder (MDD). Among females, the factors that were independently associated with high risk sexual behaviour were: being in the reproductive age groups of 25–34 and 35–44 years, not seeing a close relative killed and having experienced war-related sexual torture. Holistic HIV/AIDS prevention programming in conflict and post-conflict settings should address the psychiatric and psychosocial well-being of these communities as a risk factor for HIV acquisition.