Stress and Duress

Stress and Duress

In the article, Time to Stop ‘Stress and Duress’, Kenneth Roth concludes that the infliction of pain, suffering, and humiliation upon detainees at Abu Ghraib by American soldiers as a type of interrogation technique is wrong and must be stopped. One reason Roth provides to support this conclusion is that “The Defense Department has adopted a 72-point ‘matrix’ of types of stress to which detainees can be subjected. These include stripping detainees naked, depriving them of sleep, subjecting them to bright lights or blaring noise, hooding them, exposing them to heat and cold, and binding them in uncomfortable positions.” Citing these abuses as a reason to agree with his conclusion is an appeal to emotion fallacy. The author is describing in depth the types of harm that is inflicted upon the prisoners, only to elicit emotions from the reader to cause the reader to side with him. What type of harm the soldiers inflict upon the prisoners is irrelevant to the conclusion that it should be stopped.
In the article Eyes, the author, Melanie Scarborough, asserts the conclusion that video surveillance of citizens in cities is does not deter criminals from committing crimes. One reason Scarborough provides to support this conclusion is that “London, which has more video surveillance than any city in the world, endured a 40 percent increase in street crime last year.” In other words, in London, video surveillance has not deterred criminals from committing crimes. This rationale is a hasty generalization fallacy. She is citing one case in London where video cameras did not have curtail the crime rate, and leading the reader to assume that because this one case is true, this case will always be true.

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