Open research questions in Torture, Ethics, and Law

What the literature leaves open

• The paper identifies the challenge of developing a framework for understanding the use of digital and communication technologies to facilitate torture and ill-treatment. The paper highlights the challenge of addressing the intertwining of public and private actors in systems of coercion. The paper argues that there is a need to develop more effective strategies for preventing and responding to torture and ill-treatment in the context of new technologies.

  Coercion without contact: New technologies and the boundaries of torture · 2026 · DOI

• The paper suggests that future research should focus on developing a more nuanced understanding of the ways in which digital and communication technologies can facilitate torture and ill-treatment. The paper argues that future research should explore the potential for new technologies to create coercive environments that produce fear, self-censorship, dependency, and loss of agency.

  Coercion without contact: New technologies and the boundaries of torture · 2026 · DOI

• A limitation of this study is certainly the delayed evalu- ation of the victims, which prevents a reliable assessment of the causal relationship and compatibility between the reported history and the observed injuries. Forensic medical experts performing this type of assess- ment must always proceed with extreme caution and atten- tion, being already aware, prior to examining the victim, of the anamnestic and objective elements that need to be investigated.

  Torture in custody, a case series that highlight typical patterns of injuries and behaviors · 2026 · DOI

• Custodial torture is a violation of human rights and a crime under international law. There is a lack of awareness and education on the illegality of custodial torture. There is a need for stricter laws and enforcement to prevent custodial torture.

  Analyzing Perceptions of Custodial Torture Among Police Officers and the Public in India · 2026 · DOI

• Future research can build on this study, exploring other aspects of public perception that enable torture. Future research can incorporate wider sets of questions and techniques to capture a better understanding of the phenomenon.

  Analyzing Perceptions of Custodial Torture Among Police Officers and the Public in India · 2026 · DOI

• There is a lack of awareness among women about fertility decline and assisted reproductive technologies. Women who wish to delay pregnancy often do not have access to accurate information about their fertility options.

  Women have the right to health care in prison. This should extend to freezing their eggs · 2026 · DOI

• The paper identifies a gap in the understanding of Nazi war criminals' psychological motivations. The study highlights the need for a deeper analysis of the role of fear in their actions.

  Awareness of the Crime vs Fear of Punishment – Selected Psychological Aspects of the Attitudes of Nazi War Criminals · 2026 · DOI

• The gap in current research is the lack of a comprehensive mechanism for preventing torture. The lack of a proactive approach to preventing torture is a significant gap in current research.

  The role of the prevention torture as a mechanism for protecting the right to liberty and security in detention: conceptual, institutional, and practical dimensions · 2026 · DOI

• The lack of a framework to guide physician action under duress in authoritarian regimes. The need for a nuanced understanding of physicians' roles in repressive contexts, beyond simplistic notions of heroism or complicity. The importance of recognizing the ethical continuum in physician action, from non-complicity to more courageous forms of resistance.

  Between regime and responsibility: scaling physician ethics in times of crisis · 2026 · DOI

• I finally argue against the position that the capacity for autonomous choice is lacking in inmates by disentangling the particular features of the prison-setting and show that the context of incarceration is not so substantially different from regular cases of suicide assistance that it warrants a difference in treatment.

  Assisted suicide for prisoners: An ethical and legal analysis from the Swiss context · 2022 · DOI

• A host of people, including tutors, governesses, and babysitters claim the right, but “how far the right to corporal punishment is transferrable is entirely an open question!” Curiously, von Oertzen asserted both that there was an objectively existing “right” to use corporal punishment and that there was no consensus on where that right lay.

  A Right to Beat a Child? Corporal Punishment and the Law in Wilhelmine Germany · 2014 · DOI

• This paper seeks to address both gaps in the literature by leveraging the use of experiments embedded in a pair of US national surveys to examine the impact of international law and military experience on individual attitudes toward torture.

  Martial Law? Military Experience, International Law, and Support for Torture · 2013 · DOI

• The majority of these survivors lives in third world countries where locally funded rehabilitation services are minimal or non-existent, and most of the specialised rehabilitation centres for torture victims are non-governmental organisations (NGOs) who are totally dependent on foreign donors After a quarter of a century and impressive expansion of rehabilitation efforts worldwide, there is still no consensus about the efficacy of treatment interventions for torture survivors.

  THE WORK FIELD OF TORTURE AND NGOs – THE REALITY AND IMPACT · 2009 · DOI

• The conviction for rape was reversed on appeal on grounds of insufficient evidence of the personal involvement of the accused in the rape: Musema v Prosecutor (Judgment), November 16, 2001 (ICTR Appeals Chamber).

  Rape as genocide: some questions arising · 2007 · DOI

• To solve this apparent conflict between the stand taken by the relevant human-rights monitoring bodies and international criminal law, the author maintains that the defence of necessity is not available in the case of acts of interrogational torture because, in the circumstances under discussion (also called 'the ticking-bomb situation'), two requisite elements of necessity are lacking.

  May Necessity Be Available as a Defence for Torture in the Interrogation of Suspected Terrorists? · 2004 · DOI

• 11 Whether they would authorize preventive detention of someone like David, who may not exhibit the type of inability to control that is popularly associated with sex offenders, remains an open question, and pure preventive detention of someone like Moussaoui is undoubtedly not authorized by the Court's case law to date.

  A Jurisprudence of Dangerousness · 2003

• The United States is an outlier among western democracies in its retention of the death penalty. There is a need to understand the history and efforts to abolish capital punishment in the United States.

  Capital punishment and the American agenda · 1987 · DOI

• The book identifies a gap in the understanding of torture as a political problem. The review essay discusses the need for a nuanced understanding of the history and politics of torture.

  Review essay/the politics of torture · 1987 · DOI

• The sample size is limited to 208 subjects. The survey only included college students. The descriptions of actual cases did not include racial characteristics or social class.

  GENERAL VERSUS SPECIFIC SUPPORT FOR CAPITAL PUNISHMENT · 1987 · DOI

• There is a gap between public opinion and the actual application of capital punishment. The paper identifies this gap as a key area for investigation.

  GENERAL VERSUS SPECIFIC SUPPORT FOR CAPITAL PUNISHMENT · 1987 · DOI

• The lack of a way to define execution and participation in mass murder and genocide as pathological in the standard classification system in psychopathology. The need to redefine normality and abnormality in the context of mass destruction.

  Genocide and Mass Destruction: Doing Harm to Others as a Missing Dimension in Psychopathology · 1986 · DOI

• The question of what happened to those who decided not to participate in mass murder has been neglected. The story of one man who was unwilling to continue killing Jews has not been told.

  The ‘cowardly’ executioner: On disobedience in the SS · 1985 · DOI

• More extensive sampling of survivors of terrorist incidents is needed. Further study of the effectiveness of traditional psychotherapy for victims of terrorism is needed.

  A six‐year follow‐up of hostage victims · 1985 · DOI

• The study identifies the long-term effects of torture on the health of 22 Greek persons. The significance of the psychological trauma for the pathogenesis is well known.

  Psychological and Physical Long-term Effects of Torture: A Follow-up Examination of 22 Greek Persons Exposed to Torture 1967–1974 · 1985 · DOI

• There are few studies that attempt to probe deeper into what people mean when they say that they favor or oppose the death penalty. There is a lack of understanding of the attitudinal and informational bases of people's opinions about the death penalty.

  Public Opinion and Capital Punishment: A Close Examination of the Views of Abolitionists and Retentionists · 1983 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Torture, Ethics, and Law

• Violence without Moral Restraint: Reflections on the Dehumanization of Victims and Victimizers · Journal of Social Issues · 1973 · 408 citations
• Defining maltreatment according to substantiation: distinction without a difference? · Child Abuse & Neglect · 2005 · 377 citations
• The Expressive Function of Punishment · The Monist · 1965 · 248 citations
• The measurement of maltreatment: A comparison of approaches · Child Abuse & Neglect · 1995 · 223 citations
• Persons and Punishment · The Monist · 1968 · 220 citations
• The demand for punishment · Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization · 2006 · 203 citations
• None Dare Call It Torture: Indexing and the Limits of Press Independence in the Abu Ghraib Scandal · Journal of Communication · 2006 · 189 citations
• Physical punishment of children: lessons from 20 years of research · Canadian Medical Association Journal · 2012 · 169 citations
• Public Opinion and Capital Punishment: A Close Examination of the Views of Abolitionists and Retentionists · Crime & Delinquency · 1983 · 160 citations
• Shame, Guilt, and Violence · Social research · 2003 · 154 citations

Most recent work

• Wes Streeting’s Mandelson texts: Israeli war crimes, US drug tariffs, and tech companies · BMJ · 2026
• Torture in custody, a case series that highlight typical patterns of injuries and behaviors · Forensic Science, Medicine and Pathology · 2026
• “They Align Themselves With Us, Whereas I'm Aligned With the Patient”: A Multi‐Site Qualitative Study of Resident Physicians' Experiences With Law Enforcement in the Emergency Department · AEM Education and Training · 2026
• Coercion without contact: New technologies and the boundaries of torture · Torture Journal · 2026
• Revising Federal Drug Sentencing Guidelines to Better Match Sanctions to Harms · Federal Sentencing Reporter · 2026
• Engaging Community to Identify Patient-Centered Lethal Means Safety Outcomes for Youth · Pediatrics · 2026
• Analyzing Perceptions of Custodial Torture Among Police Officers and the Public in India · 2026
• Women have the right to health care in prison. This should extend to freezing their eggs · 2026
• Prisons Must Go · The Journal of Psychodrama Sociometry and Group Psychotherapy · 2026
• When the Death Penalty Is Not an Option: Procedural and Linguistic Strategies in Sentencing Palestinian Defendants in Military Courts’ Terrorism Cases · Criminal Justice Ethics · 2026

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