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Topic · Sociology and Political Science

Torture, Ethics, and Law

Torture, Ethics, and Law is a research topic within Sociology and Political Science. Science Explorer counts 9.9k research works in it since 1950. 10.2% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores the ethical implications of torture, interrogation practices, and the involvement of medical professionals in settings such as Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. It delves into the moral dilemmas surrounding torture, human rights violations, capital punishment, and the psychological impact of such practices. The papers also discuss the role of physicians in these contexts and the broader implications for medical ethics and professional conduct.

  • Torture
  • Ethics
  • Guantanamo
  • Interrogation
  • Medical Ethics
  • Human Rights
  • Capital Punishment
  • Psychological Torture
  • War on Terror
  • Physician Participation
Research works
9.9k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
1k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.2%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+5%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
45% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Torture, Ethics, and Law

Which countries lead Torture, Ethics, and Law research?

By volume, the United States and the United Kingdom publish the most (546 and 197 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 546 works
  2. 2 United Kingdom 197 works
  3. 3 Australia 77 works
  4. 4 Canada 67 works
  5. 5 Germany 60 works
  6. 6 Ukraine 57 works
  7. 7 India 56 works
  8. 8 Russia 54 works
  9. 9 Israel 44 works
  10. 10 Indonesia 44 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States: 45.4%United Kingdom: 16.4%Australia: 6.4%Canada: 5.6%6 others listed: 26.1%45%largest
United States546 · 45.4%United Kingdom197 · 16.4%Australia77 · 6.4%Canada67 · 5.6%6 others listed314 · 26.1%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Torture, Ethics, and Law research?

By volume in 2022-now, BMJ Group (United Kingdom) publishes the most Torture, Ethics, and Law research, followed by United States Department of Defense and University of Oxford.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 BMJ Group (United Kingdom) 23 works
  2. 2 United States Department of DefenseUnited States 12 works
  3. 3 University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 11 works
  4. 4 Uniformed Services University of the Health SciencesUnited States 11 works
  5. 5 Harvard UniversityUnited States 10 works
  6. 6 University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom 10 works
  7. 7 Hebrew University of JerusalemIsrael 9 works
  8. 8 King's College LondonUnited Kingdom 9 works
  9. 9 University of CopenhagenDenmark 8 works
  10. 10 University of HaifaIsrael 7 works

Who are the leading researchers in Torture, Ethics, and Law?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Torture, Ethics, and Law include Dan J. Stein, Martin McKee and Vasily Vlassov.

  1. 1 Dan J. Stein South Africa 306k citations
  2. 2 Martin McKee United Kingdom 270k citations
  3. 3 Vasily Vlassov United States 212k citations
  4. 4 Roy Frederick Baumeister United States 183k citations
  5. 5 Robert L. Spitzer United States 180k citations
  6. 6 Michael E. Porter United States 165k citations
  7. 7 Sorin Hostiuc Romania 164k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Torture, Ethics, and Law?

The most cited paper in Torture, Ethics, and Law is "Moral injury and moral repair in war veterans: A preliminary model and intervention strategy" (Brett T. Litz, Nathan R. Stein, Eileen M. Delaney et al., 2009), with 2,712 citations. Next come "Imaginary Relish and Exquisite Torture: The Elaborated Intrusion Theory of Desire." (958) and "The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide, by Robert Jay Lifton" (798).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Moral injury and moral repair in war veterans: A preliminary model and intervention strategy Brett T. Litz, Nathan R. Stein, Eileen M. Delaney et al. · Clinical Psychology Review 30 Jul 2009 2,712
2 Imaginary Relish and Exquisite Torture: The Elaborated Intrusion Theory of Desire. David John Kavanagh, Jackie Andrade, Jon May · Psychological Review Open access 22 Mar 2005 958
3 The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide, by Robert Jay Lifton Leo Kuper · Political Science Quarterly 1987 798
4 Moral Injury: An Integrative Review Brandon J. Griffin, Natalie Purcell, Kristine M. Burkman et al. · Journal of Traumatic Stress 28 Jan 2019 753
5 Culture of Terror—Space of Death. Roger Casement's Putumayo Report and the Explanation of Torture Michael Taussig · Comparative Studies in Society and History Jul 1984 678
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Torture, Ethics, and Law research done?

The largest centres of Torture, Ethics, and Law research in 2022-now are London (United Kingdom), New York (United States), Washington D.C. (United States) and London (??). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in London.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 LondonUnited Kingdom 44 works
  2. 2 New YorkUnited States 40 works
  3. 3 Washington D.C.United States 27 works
  4. 4 London 23 works
  5. 5 MoscowRussia 21 works
  6. 6 KyivUkraine 19 works
  7. 7 SydneyAustralia 17 works
  8. 8 MelbourneAustralia 15 works
  9. 9 ChicagoUnited States 14 works
  10. 10 BerlinGermany 14 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. London22.7 works80×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Torture, Ethics, and Law than the world average.

See Torture, Ethics, and Law on the map

Where is the best place to study Torture, Ethics, and Law?

Among universities, judged by research, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, University of Oxford and Harvard University score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%10%20%30%mean 17.95%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Uniformed Services U…King's College LondonHarvard UniversityUniversity of Oxford
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Uniformed Services University of the Health SciencesUnited States 87.226.1%35.4×11 +71.8%
2University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 65.014.0%5.0×11 -12.2%
3Harvard UniversityUnited States 61.818.2%2.1×10 +15.5%
4King's College LondonUnited Kingdom 59.720.6%6.8×9 +35.7%
5Hebrew University of JerusalemIsrael 44.219.0%11.2×9 +53.3%
6University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom 33.69.8%5.1×10 +34.9%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Torture, Ethics, and Law, country by country

Is Torture, Ethics, and Law research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 5% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2024. The fastest-growing topics are Torture, Ethics, and Law.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Torture, Ethics, and Law as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.0088% in 2024.

still counting0.0050%0.010%0.015%Torture, Ethics, and Law0.0073% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Torture, Ethics, and Law over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Torture, Ethics, and Law10.8% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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