什麼是施刑

施加給心靈或肉體的讓人難以忍受的痛苦。當權者曾採用這一方法來達到懲罰、威壓和強迫之目的，尤其是針對敵人，以逼取口供或獲得情報。曾在希臘人和羅馬人中被廣泛使用；亞里斯多德爲這種做法做過辯解，而西塞羅、西尼加和聖奧古斯丁卻對此表示反對。作爲一種獲得口供的途徑，施刑在12世紀的歐洲越來越多地爲人所使用。從14世紀中葉至18世紀施刑是一種普遍的且獲准許的做法。羅馬天主教會亦支持異端裁判所採用此法。通常採用的手段及工具爲吊刑（利用背在背後的手腕來反覆的升降身體），拷問臺（用來拽拉四肢和身體）和拇指夾（用來擠壓拇指）。到1800年，施刑在大多數歐洲國家都是不合法的，但在20世紀這一做法又再次廣爲應用，尤其是在納粹德國和蘇聯。至今，施刑在拉丁美洲，非洲以及中東還被廣泛採用。認爲只有虐待狂纔會成爲施刑者的看法，受到了1960年代美國進行的一項研究的質疑，這項研究表明，普通人很容易被說服，對他人施加痛苦。

torture

Infliction of intolerable physical or psychological pain. Torture has been used by those in power for punishment, coercion, and intimidation, especially of enemies, and for extracting confessions and information. It was widely used by the Greeks and Romans; the practice was defended by Aristotle but eloquently opposed by Cicero, Seneca, and St. Augustine. Its use in Europe increased in the 12th century as a means of obtaining confessions. It was common and sanctioned from the mid-14th through the 18th century; the Roman Catholic Church supported its use during the Inquisition. Common instruments were the strappado (for repeatedly hoisting the body by the wrists behind the back and dropping it), the rack (for stretching the limbs and body), and the thumbscrew (for crushing the thumbs). By 1800 torture was illegal in most European countries, but it became common again in the 20th century, notably in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, and is still widely practiced in Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East. The belief that only sadists could be torturers was challenged by a U.S. study of the 1960s that found that ordinary people could be easily persuaded to inflict pain on others.