Where do we turn (and why) when apples ‘go bad’

Abstract

Dan McCulloch, PhD Candidate in Criminology and Deborah Drake, Lecturer in Criminology write: In his TED talk on the ‘psychology of evil’, Philip Zimbardo discusses one of the most prominent cases of abuse of power in recent years, the abuse of detainees by US officials and Army personnel in Abu Ghraib prison, Iraq in 2003. Zimbardo’s analysis is particularly relevant today, given the ongoing investigation into alleged abuse of Iraqi detainees by British soldiers. Whilst it would be easy to condemn these prison officials for their behaviour, he focuses upon the processes that may have led to that situation arising – acknowledging that each of us, rather than existing as fixed entities of purely ‘good’ or ‘evil’, has the capacity for both good and bad. In doing this, Zimbardo’s approach might make us think about other times where people are constructed as ‘evil’ or ‘heroic’