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Cultures of Denial: Avoiding Knowledge of State Violations of Human Rights in Argentina and the United States
Author(s) -
Sutton Barbara,
Norgaard Kari Marie
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
sociological forum
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.937
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1573-7861
pISSN - 0884-8971
DOI - 10.1111/socf.12035
Subject(s) - human rights , denial , dictatorship , torture , politics , sociology , democracy , ideology , law , sociocultural evolution , normalization (sociology) , political science , state (computer science) , criminology , social science , psychology , algorithm , computer science , psychoanalysis
Why and how do individuals distance themselves from information about their government's participation in torture and other human rights violations? Such citizen (non)response implicitly legitimates and thus facilitates the continuation of abusive state actions. Drawing on a model of socially organized denial, we explore how sociocultural contexts and practices mediate individuals’ avoidance, justification, normalization, silencing, and outright denial of human rights abuses in two sites: Argentina during the last military dictatorship (1976–1983) and the United States during the “war on terror” post September 11, 2001. The study is based on 40 in‐depth interviews with members of diverse civic, religious, community, and political organizations in both countries (20 in each site). Comparing the political circumstances of a dictatorship and an electoral democracy, the analysis shows the roles of patriotic and national security ideologies and practices of silence and talk as organizers of cultures of denial.