什么是施刑

施加给心灵或肉体的让人难以忍受的痛苦。当权者曾采用这一方法来达到惩罚、威压和强迫之目的，尤其是针对敌人，以逼取口供或获得情报。曾在希腊人和罗马人中被广泛使用；亚里斯多德为这种做法做过辩解，而西塞罗、西尼加和圣奥古斯丁却对此表示反对。作为一种获得口供的途径，施刑在12世纪的欧洲越来越多地为人所使用。从14世纪中叶至18世纪施刑是一种普遍的且获准许的做法。罗马天主教会亦支持异端裁判所采用此法。通常采用的手段及工具为吊刑（利用背在背後的手腕来反覆的升降身体），拷问台（用来拽拉四肢和身体）和拇指夹（用来挤压拇指）。到1800年，施刑在大多数欧洲国家都是不合法的，但在20世纪这一做法又再次广为应用，尤其是在纳粹德国和苏联。至今，施刑在拉丁美洲，非洲以及中东还被广泛采用。认为只有虐待狂才会成为施刑者的看法，受到了1960年代美国进行的一项研究的质疑，这项研究表明，普通人很容易被说服，对他人施加痛苦。

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.