Violence Workers: Police Torturers and Murderers Reconstruct Brazilian Atrocities
Martha Huggins, Mika Haritos-Fatouros, and Philip Zimbardo
Abstract
Of the twenty-three Brazilian policemen interviewed in depth for this 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 th ... More
Keywords: Brazilian policemen, torture, murder, violence workers, atrocity facilitators, state torturers, state murderers, military regime, violence, victims
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2002 | Print ISBN-13: 9780520234468 |
| Published to California Scholarship Online: May 2012 | DOI:10.1525/california/9780520234468.001.0001 |
