Torture Chamber

Why does man torture? Is it pleasurable? Is it a show of power? Does it get results? Perhaps it is a little of everything.

Some would say that torture is conducted because someone can. Someone has power over another. This is certainly a valid argument in many torture cases. Children torture animals often as a show of power. Charles Ng and Leonard Lake certainly got a perverse feeling of satisfaction and power over their victims in California. Whether it was in the sexual domination of the women or the killing of the men, "because they could" could certainly be a reason they did these things.

But torture can also be a means to an end. Some of the Nazi and Japanese torture of prisoners for medical research had a goal of trying to improve their ability to give medical care. The torturers simply did not feel that their victims were totally human, so their pain had little consequence.

Military services have often used torture against prisoners to extract information which might be helpful to their mission. Once again, as prisoners, their "rights" were non-existent.

Torture has been used as a deterrent. Criminals and invaders were tortured and then displayed to dissuade others from following the same path.

Sometimes, these reasons are combined. Some scholars feel that Vlad the Impaler enjoyed putting so many Turks up in stakes. But it was also undoubtedly done to warn the Turks about invading the region.

Governments and religious orders have long used torture to extract confessions and in retribution for wrongs or perceived wrongs. Over the span of time, how many people have been put to death for crimes they "confessed" to while under torture?

Torture is not always unwanted. Consensual sexual torture is alive and well in today's society. Some people feel pain heightens sexual intensity. Spanking, bondage, BDSM, S&M, and other pain-causing actions are accepted by people in the pursuit of sexual gratification.