Experts in the intelligence community say that torture is ineffective. Yet much of the public appears unconvinced: surveys show that nearly half of Americans think that torture can be acceptable for counterterrorism purposes. Why do people persist in supporting torture—and can they be persuaded to change their minds? In Tortured Logic, Erin M. Kearns and Joseph K. Young draw upon a novel series of group experiments to understand how and why the average citizen might come to support the use of torture techniques. They find evidence that when torture is depicted as effective in the media, people are more likely to approve of it. Their analysis weighs variables such as the ethnicity of the interrogator and the suspect; the salience of one’s own mortality; and framing by experts. Kearns and Young also examine who changes their opinions about torture and how, demonstrating that only some individuals have fixed views while others have more malleable beliefs. They argue that efforts to reduce support for torture should focus on convincing those with fluid views that torture is ineffective. The book features interviews with experienced interrogators and professionals working in the field to contextualize its findings. Bringing empirical rigor to a fraught topic, Tortured Logic has important implications for understanding public perceptions of counterterrorism strategy.

Daniel, Jake and Molly were inseparable. Love, hate, secrets, deception, jealousy and lies. A tragic accident. Or was it? Death is not the end. Some relationships were meant to last... Revenge is bittersweet. Tortured Minds is the psychological thriller based on three characters, written by three very different authors: Grant Leishman, Colin Griffiths and Rachel McGrath. An intense page-turner that will take you on supernatural ride of passion, treachery and surprises.

A man finds his aunt bludgeoned to death in the living room of her elegant Forty Fort home. A teenage girl disappears on her way home from Coatesville High School. A reputed witch turns up dead in Pottsville. A young woman seemingly helps solve her own murder after she dies in a Philadelphia park. True-crime author Tammy Mal digs up facts on four of Pennsylvania's weirdest killings in her book Tortured Minds: Pennsylvania's Most Bizarre-But Forgotten-Murders. These 1930s crimes have long fallen into obscurity, but Mal deftly revives them in stark detail, from discovery of the body and through the trial. Ghosts, witches, resentment, and sex factor into these crimes, giving them a chilling edge as Mal brings them back to life in her latest true-crime book. It's a look into just what tortured minds can do, certain to convince you to lock your doors after dark.

The torture ring that operated out of Chicago Police Department Area 2 and 3 headquarters for more than two decades is one of the most terrible and harrowing stories of injustice to take place in my lifetime. Journalists, lawyers and activists played their part in exposing this nightmare, but the victims of police torture themselves did the most to make the truth known, and against steep odds, they were heard. Jon Burge may have never seen the inside of a jail cell like he should have, but thanks in large part to Stanley Howard and the other authors of this book, he will never be remembered as anything other than a monstrous criminal. This book tells the story of police torture in Chicago from the inside—literally—and when you read it, you’ll agree that no one has done a better job of telling all of it. Nothing can ever make up for the injustices these men suffered. But if we can stop this state-sponsored crime from ever happening again, we will have Stanley, Mark, Marvin and Ronnie to thank for it. — Alan Maass, author, The Case for Socialism; editor, SocialistWorker.org Tortured by Blue is not a story about individual survival in the face of horrific circumstances. It is a story about the multitude of individuals (police, prosecutors, judges, elected officials to name a few), practices, and systems that looked the other way and knowingly ALLOWED for the police torture of men and women in Chicago to continue on for decades. With the turn of each page, my rage grew, and with it a commitment to making sure the truths Stanley Howard, Mark Clements, Marvin Reeves and Ronald Kitchen lifts up in their writings are shared widely and result in accountability and substantive change so no individual or family has to go through what the police torture survivors had to experience. —Cindy Eigler, director of policy and strategic initiatives, Chicago Torture Justice Center Swept under the rug for too long, the wrongful convictions and police abuses described in [Torture by Blue] are a very real part of the history of the city of Chicago. Studying that history is crucial to avoiding the mistakes of the past, and [the author’s] deserves considerable credit from pulling it all together. Well -researched and comprehensive in scope, [the author’s] book doses an excellent job of telling this important story. —Jon Lovey, civil rights attorney specializing in police misconduct

The role of torture in recent Iranian politics is the subject of Ervand Abrahamian's important and disturbing book. Although Iran officially banned torture in the early twentieth century, Abrahamian provides documentation of its use under the Shahs and of the widespread utilization of torture and public confession under the Islamic Republican governments. His study is based on an extensive body of material, including Amnesty International reports, prison literature, and victims' accounts that together give the book a chilling immediacy. According to human rights organizations, Iran has been at the forefront of countries using systematic physical torture in recent years, especially for political prisoners. Is the government's goal to ensure social discipline? To obtain information? Neither seem likely, because torture is kept secret and victims are brutalized until something other than information is obtained: a public confession and ideological recantation. For the victim, whose honor, reputation, and self-respect are destroyed, the act is a form of suicide. In Iran a subject's "voluntary confession" reaches a huge audience via television. The accessibility of television and use of videotape have made such confessions a primary propaganda tool, says Abrahamian, and because torture is hidden from the public, the victim's confession appears to be self-motivated, increasing its value to the authorities. Abrahamian compares Iran's public recantations to campaigns in Maoist China, Stalinist Russia, and the religious inquisitions of early modern Europe, citing the eerie resemblance in format, language, and imagery. Designed to win the hearts and minds of the masses, such public confessions—now enhanced by technology—continue as a means to legitimize those in power and to demonize "the enemy."

A twisted spin on the popular, "prompt" style of writing, all within a grim and gothic world of woe...