The Abu Ghraib Prison, now known as the Baghdad Central Prison, is a penal institution located in the Iraqi city of Abu Ghraib that was under shared control between the Iraqi government and the United States between 2003 and 2006. During this period, it was also the site of severe and consistent human rights violations committed by U.S. personnel against the prison inmates. Under the supervision and command of General Karpinski, American troops and prison guards committed severely sadistic, brutal, and humiliating measures against thousands of Iraqi inmates in order to obtain and maintain order and an authoritative reign. Evidence of many of the inhumane crimes, such as castration of male inmates, pouring chemicals on inmates, and threat of rape and physical violence towards all inmates, has been found in recent years via videos and pictures taken by prisoners and other guards within the prison. Similarly to the Stanford Prison Experiment, the guards and authoritative figures within Abu Ghraib relied on tactics of humiliation and emotional manipulation mixed with physical violence in order to maintain order and compliance from their inmates. Through both simulations like the Stanford Prison Experiment as well as through real life scenarios as the one exhibited in Abu Ghraib, we can see the effects that roles and environment have on behavior and attitude (Hersh, 2004; Stewart, 2008).
