Torturing Environments: Psychological, Clinical and Legal Dimensions

Torturing Environments explores how contemporary practices of coercion have evolved beyond overt physical torture, increasingly relying on psychological pressure, structural violence, and the manipulation of social and economic conditions. This book further develops the groundbreaking concept of ‘Torturing Environments’, offering a new lens for understanding how states and institutions can deliberately generate suffering without overt physical brutality.Drawing on forensic, clinical, legal, and human rights perspectives, Torturing Environments provides an in-depth analysis of the mechanisms that produce sustained psychological harm, including detention conditions, harassment, fabricated criminalisation, intimidation of families, and deliberate economic deprivation. It presents the Torturing Environment Scale (TES 2.0), an updated tool to measure coercive environments, and introduces 18 practical Quick Reference Cards (QRC) to guide documentation and assessment in fieldwork, forensic reporting, and litigation. Each card offers clear, hands-on guidance for assessing specific conditions within Torturing Environments – covering topics from security planning and traumainformed interviewing to documenting solitary confinement, coercive interrogation, and threats or attacks on identity and dignity.Written for lawyers, human rights practitioners, mental health professionals, forensic experts, scholars, students, and engaged readers, Torturing Environments delivers an essential and accessible framework for identifying, analysing, and confronting emerging forms of ill-treatment and torture. It is a vital resource for those committed to protecting human dignity in complex contemporary settings.

About the Author

Pau Pérez-Sales is a Psychiatrist and Clinical Director of the SiR[a] Centre for Assessment and Rehabilitation of Torture Survivors. He is Editor-in-Chief of Torture Journal , author of Psychological Torture (Routledge, 2017), and a forensic expert in national and international courts.