Excellent effort, but a little weak.

books:


	• Violence Workers: Police Torturers and Murderers Reconstruct Brazilian Atrocities Martha Knisely Huggins, Mika Haritos-Fatouros, ... University of California Press, 2002 - 280 pages average customer review:based on 3 reviews view larger image
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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

Excellent effort, but a little weak.

I applaud the effort, skill, courage, and scholarship that went into this book. I found the subject captivating and the effort was obviously beyond that of most studies. For these reasons perhaps this work deserves four or even five stars. However, the language of presentation made it a bit dry. More importantly, some linkages seemed a bit forced. Perhaps it's because I'm a man or maybe because I'm not familiar with the ideas used, but the continued reference to masculinity effects seemed somewhat strained as if the main author was trying to push an agenda.

I also take issue with her categorization into bureaucratic, personalistic, and blended types of torturers. The sample of 24 alleged police torturers/murderers was too small and she seemed at times to assert that these were underlying personality categories. This part of the analysis seemed too tautological to me. Perhaps I'm being too critical given the current exploratory state of this area of scholarship.

Because of the importance of the subject matter, I categorize this book as a "must read" for anyone concerned about how civil bureaucracies can break away from public accountability and trend toward evil and the execution of the most horrendous atrocities despite being composed of "just normal men and women".

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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 state torturers and murderers? How do atrocity perpetrators explain and justify their violence? What is the impact of their murderous deeds--on them, on their victims, and on society? What memories of their atrocities do they admit and which become public history?

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