The Role of Gender in 'Expressive' Abuse at Abu Ghraib Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • We analyze the court-martial of Sabrina Harman, one of the alleged `seven rotten apples' associated with specific incidents of abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, vis-a-vis the Parsonian distinction between `instrumental' and `expressive' pattern-variables. The Parsonian distinction between instrumental and expressive roles served a multitude of functions simultaneously, and especially given the masculine code of the military. We move beyond Parsons to introduce the new concepts of `expressive abuse', `expressive torture', and `instrumental misuse of expressive functions' to capture the overall thrust of the courts-martial as well as important aspects of the abuse at Abu Ghraib as revealed through testimony, government reports, interviews, and other sources of data. Both co-authors were participant-observers at the courts-martial of Sabrina Harman and Lynndie England, and draw upon the testimony and data from those trials in addition to the documents that are cited.

published proceedings

  • CULTURAL SOCIOLOGY

author list (cited authors)

  • Caldwell, R. A., & Mestrovic, S. G.

citation count

  • 8

complete list of authors

  • Caldwell, Ryan Ashley||Mestrovic, Stjepan G

publication date

  • November 2008