Torture and Torturous Violence: Transcending Definitions of Torture

There is growing acknowledgement that torture is too narrowly defined in law, and that psychological and/or sexualised violence against women is not adequately recognized as torture.

Clearly conceptualising torturous violence, this book offers scholars and practitioners critical reflections on how torture is defined and the implications that narrow definitions may have on survivors. Drawing on over a decade of research and interviews with psychologists, practitioners and women seeking asylum, it sets out the implications of the social silencing of torture, and torturous violence specifically. It invites us to consider alternative ways to understand and address the impacts of physical, sexualized and psychological abuses.

Victoria Canning is Associate Professor of Criminology at the University of Bristol. She is currently Head of the Centre for the Study of Poverty and Social Justice, Associate Director in Border Criminologies at Oxford University, and trustee of Statewatch. Victoria has published and edited various books and articles, including Gendered Harm and Structural Violence in the British Asylum System (2017), From Social Harm to Zemiology (2021, with Steve Tombs) and Stealing Time: Migration, Temporalities and State Violence (2021, with Monish Bhatia). She is cocreator of the Right to Remain Asylum Navigation Board (with Lisa Matthews) and has acted as academic consultant on the BAFTA award-winning series Exodus: Our Journey to Europe.