Scarry and Zarkov in Law and Order

As I was watching one of my favorite T.V. shows I realized that the topic related to the book I was reading for class. Scarry’s idea about pain and the infliction of pain as an interrogation technique to gain something or information can be seen in the Law and Order Criminal Intent episode Homo Homini Lupus. The episode is about a wealthy man whose wife and daughters are kidnapped and taken as collateral until he pays his loan shark all of his debt. He is told he will never see them again unless he pays up. The eldest daughter is raped by a former militant from another country. Scarry’s idea that the loan sharks were not concerned about the pain which was inflicted on the women or the wealthy man but rather they were concerned about the money they had loaned him and wanted it back. Zarkov’s idea about the rape of women as a form of torture became clear for the teenage girl when she was violated to torture her father into paying the ransom. The tactics her rapist used seemed to be the same for the Muslim women in Zarkov’s book. After they were released the family pretended nothing ever happened to the girl while the girl pretended that her rapist had feelings for her and that’s why he had sex with her. This is the same thing that many of the Muslim women did when they were released from their hostage cells so they could go back to their lives and not have to deal with what happened to them.