Addressing Torture and Torturous Violence by Vicky Canning

Torture is a serious violation of human dignity, but one which remains peripheral to mainstream sociology, often situated instead in psychological studies or international relations. Sexual torture, or sexualised torturous violence, is further silenced in all realms of study, in part due to the complexity in identifying or defining what constitutes sexual torture, and in part due to social silencing inherent to the shame and stigma associated with sexual violence more broadly. In this short video, Dr. Victoria Canning introduces her new project Unsilencing Sexualised Torture in collaboration with the Danish Institute Against Torture (funded by British Academy, 2020-2022). Here she highlights the gendered and intersectional limitations of depending on legal definitions, and outlines the concept of torturous violence (Canning, 2016).