In a phone interview, Craig B. Futterman, a professor at the University of Chicago Law School who focuses on racial discrimination and police brutality, said Mr. Burge’s actions persisted for so long because of “institutional denial, a code of silence and refusal to address patterns of abuse and racism.” There was also a “collective denial,” he added, from a society that is “resistant to believe that the people whom we trust to protect us from harm would be predatory.”

Many of Mr. Burge’s victims remain in prison, Futterman said, as a result of testimonies obtained through torture. Then-Illinois Gov. George Ryan (R) pardoned four death-row inmates linked to Mr. Burge in 2003 (the state later abolished the death penalty altogether), and in 2009, Illinois formed the Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission to investigate Burge-related cases.

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