State torture has found a number of defenders in law, philosophy, and public policy. Their defences ignore the empirical literature on torture and thus misunderstand its nature and the damage it does, as well as accepting the illusory benefits it promises. This work questions the increasing acceptability of state-sponsored torture interrogation.

State torture has found an increasing number of defenders in law, philosophy, and public policy. Their defences often ignore the empirical literature on torture and thus misunderstand its nature and the damage it does, as well as accepting the illusory benefits it promises. Richard Matthews challenges the increasing acceptability of state-sponsored torture interrogation, repudiating any possible justifications.He confronts its various supporters - ticking time bomb and tragic choice theorists, utilitarians, legal scholars - and draws from philosophy, medicine, psychiatry, survivor and torturer narratives, history, feminism, the experience of working intelligence officials, anthropology, and game theory to illustrate that no moral justification for torture can be supported. "The Absolute Violation" is essential reading for philosophers, lawyers, judges, human rights activists, military, police and intelligence officers, medical professionals, and anyone who is interested in forcefully countering the recent trend towards moral justification of torture.

AcknowledgmentsIntroduction
1 Understanding Torture
2 What about the Ticking Bomb?
3 Why Utilitarians Must Oppose Torture
4 Torture, Tragic Choices, and Dirty Hands
5 On Neither Excusing nor Justifying Torture
ConclusionReferences
Index