Application: What Went Wrong at Abu Ghraib?

No one would question that the events that took place in Abu Ghraib in 2004 (Gilman & Lewis, 2005) were unethical, but when it comes to identifying the causes, opinions vary greatly. While individuals are ultimately responsible for their own ethical behavior, institutional and situational causes provide the breeding ground for ethical breaches to occur. It is important to explore historical situations that provide insight into how the abuse of power leads to unethical decision making.

Identify one individual, one institutional, and one situational ethical breach that took place at Abu Ghraib.

For each identified ethical breach, suggest an underlying cause or institutional challenge.

Explain how insights gained from the Stanford Prison Experiment might apply to each underlying cause or institutional challenge.

Support your work with specific citations from the Learning Resources. You are allowed to draw from additional sources to support your explanation, but you must cite using APA standards. All quoted material must be identified, cited, and referenced per APA standards.