Not some bad apples: How people can turn into abuse perpetrators Lesson from Abu Ghraib and Bosnia Herzegovina
Fuschi, Fabiana
Fuschi, Fabiana
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Abstract
This thesis wants to investigate the applicability of Hannah Arendt’s theory on the banality of evil on current episodes of human rights violations. In doing so, two social psychology experiments are taken into consideration: Stanley Milgram’s experiment on obedience and Philip Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison experiment. The variables isolated in both experiments are analyzed in the context of two case studies: US soldiers’ abuses against Iraqi prisoners in the Abu Ghraib prison, and U.N peacekeepers’ involvement in human trafficking of women in post-war Bosnia Herzegovina. The general conclusion that can be drawn is that under particular situational factors, which are examined in detail, average people can display abusive and sadistic behaviors that they would have never imagined to perform under different circumstances.
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Thesis (B.A. in Political Science, Minor in Psychology)--John Cabot University, Spring 2017.
Date
2017
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Keywords
Human rights, War and crime, War crimes, Prisoners of war, Abu Ghraib Prison, Crimes against women, Philip G. Zimbardo, Human experimentation in psychology, Prison psychology
Citation
Fuschi, Fabiana. "Not some bad apples: How people can turn into abuse perpetrators Lesson from Abu Ghraib and Bosnia Herzegovina". Thesis, John Cabot University, Rome, Italy. 2017.