i come from a communist country and a certain degree of torture was often used by the special police those days. we are talking of course mild stuff, in comparison to medieval ways: just good old beating, threats, sleep deprivation.
to make it DR related - seems like a beating is still a way to deal with criminals although not much as before (so i am told).
in any question about torture you have to ask yourself: who the hell would be people willing to do it? surely in order to torture (think more vietnam war horrors than simple smack in the face) you'd need a psychotic personality, what normal person would be willing to torture others?
in all due respect to those willing to cut off limbs of child rapists - would you do it as a job? cutting off balls, ripping off nails, burning faces with hot iron, poking eyes out? would you do it nine to five, 5 days a week, for 20 years? violence like that corrupts mentally.
not that i am against occasional beating, and it's far easier to get away with it in DR than in USA, just look at all those stories about arrests made by local police...