All in a Day's Work

In April 2004 photographs revealed images of American soldiers torturingprisoners held at a facility in Abu Ghraib Iraq. Numerous detainees werephotographed hooded and naked piled upon one another. Others had wiresattached to genitals and extremities or were assaulted by attack dogs. Thatthese abuses occurred at Saddam Huessein's most notorious of prisons addeda cruel irony. Public questions focused on why seemingly ordinary peopleengage in this type of behavior yet individualized explanations fail toaccount for the prevalence and systematic use of torture at the prison. Iexamine documents to probe organizational culture structure and processesand their intersection with individuals and organizational context to explainhow organizational features contributed to the systematic use of torture atthat facility. What recent historical and political processes served to influenceorganizational culture structure and processes that facilitated or promotedthe use of torture? How did torture come to be defined as an instrumentalmeans of achieving the organization's goals? What organizational factorswere key in promoting a setting for torture and how did these essentiallyintersect with individual to shape processes such as perception action andproblem-solving? This book is directed toward researchers and students oforganizational sociology and criminology.