UN says Pentagon plan to livestream execution of Fort Hood shooter would amount to torture – US politics live
Broadcasting an execution could cause post-traumatic stress disorder in the viewing public, mental health experts have said after Hegseth’s announcement that the firing squad execution of Nidal Hassan – the former US…
Broadcasting an execution could cause post-traumatic stress disorder in the viewing public, mental health experts have said after Hegseth’s announcement that the firing squad execution of Nidal Hassan – the former US army psychiatrist who killed 13 people at Fort Hood – would be livestreamed.
Dr Simon Duff, a forensic psychologist at the University of Nottingham in the UK, said that while there was not a lot of research into the impact of watching an execution, studies examining journalists’ experiences of witnessing violence suggested evidence of trauma response.
“Certainly if people are not resilient they probably shouldn’t [watch], but if they have some underlying psychological driver towards viewing an execution they will likely do so regardless of the potential for harm,” Duff said.
“Recent events suggest that executions do not always go to plan,” he said, referring to the failed execution by lethal injection of Christa Pike in the US. “That possibility needs to be acknowledged, and the likelihood that this would increase the trauma for viewers.”
Neil Greenberg, a professor of defence mental health at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London, said trigger warnings did not routinely lead to people avoiding media they may find distressing.
“Instead they are likely to suffer anticipatory anxiety before the ‘trauma’ is shown and some people will then become distressed,” he said.
“It is likely that people who have pre-existing mental health problems will be especially at risk of becoming distressed or experiencing a deterioration in their mental health.
“My advice would be not to watch the event at all and I would hope that mainstream media would not transmit highly traumatic images [or] sounds,” Greenberg said.
Public executions were once common around the world, including in the UK, but only two out of 17 countries that carried out executions last year did so publicly.
