CORPORAL PUNISHMENT

Corporal Punishment

Table of Contents

Introduction2

Discussion2

Corporal Punishment Used In Other Countries2

Arguments for or against Corporal punishment in the United States3

Conclusion9

References11

Appendix12

Corporal Punishment

Introduction

Corporal punishment is the use of physical force on an individual to cause a degree of pain or discomfort. The practice is intended to punish, control, discipline, or educate. Although corporal punishment may be meted out to people of any age, modern concerns are mainly about its use on children. Corporal punishment may range in severity from a simple slap to a thorough beating. The context in which it is administered varies. An exasperated parent may slap a toddler on the legs, without premeditation, to stop them from doing something dangerous. At the other extreme, a sadistic teacher might subject pupils to an elaborating caning ritual for trivial reasons. This paper discusses corporal punishment used in other countries. It also argues for or against corporal punishment in the United States with a focus on corporal punishment in the judicial system.

Discussion

Corporal punishments such as flogging, branding, dunking, and maiming have gradually disappeared as official, court-imposed sanctions in most societies. This does not mean that abuse of convicted offenders today does not occur; we all know that such abuse takes place even in the most enlightened societies. The distinction is similar to that between judicially ordered executions and extrajudicial killing of citizens by agents of a government. (Bohm 2001)

Corporal Punishment Used In Other Countries

For thousands of years, physical punishment was the norm in domestic, educational, and judicial settings. Beating with sticks and whippings were common in ancient Greece and Rome. The acceptability of corporal punishment began to decline, however, from the 19th century onwards. Since the 1950s, legislation has been introduced in some countries to outlaw corporal punishment of children. School discipline in most Western countries now tends to avoid any kind of physical force. It has also become socially unacceptable for parents to hit their child in public in many countries. Corporal punishment has been abolished in the home, school, other institutions, and in twenty-three countries around the world, including Spain, Uruguay, Austria, Germany, and Iceland. The Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children aims for a global ban, and its efforts are supported by many medical organizations and children's charities. Nevertheless, corporal punishment still goes on, unofficially, in countries where it is banned, and it remains officially in use, and is common, in parts of Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean. (Foucault 2007)

[Countries With Judicial Corporal Punishment]

The philosophy of Corporal punishment also has undergone changes in the past 200 years. In the nineteenth century, the classical school of criminologists spearheaded the move toward rational sentencing linked to the severity of the crime. In the early twentieth century, under the influence of Progressive Movement reformers and with the United States in the lead, the philosophy of sentencing became increasingly rehabilitative. However, over the past thirty years, there has been a backlash against the rehabilitative philosophy, again with the United States in the ...