TORTURE WRIT broadly is the intentional infliction of physical or psychological pain. The term includes a wide variety of conduct ranging from that instigated by authorities to gain confessions or information to that caused by private actors in the course of domestic abuse or in the intimidation of neighbors or disliked ethnic or religious minorities. Most legal definitions of torture, however, restrict its definition by requiring an element of state action. Thus, for example, the United Nations Convention against Torture defines it as:

Similarly, the damage done by torture and the evidence of the same range widely. On the one hand, some persons torturing others seek to injure their victims in a way that is highly visible and consequently damaging to the victim's psyche (and serve as a threat to anyone who sees the victim).