Editing Corporal punishment (section)

==History==
===Prehistory===
Author [[Jared Diamond]] writes that [[hunter-gatherer]] societies have tended to use little corporal punishment whereas agricultural and industrial societies tend to use progressively more of it. Diamond suggests this may be because hunter-gatherers tend to have few valuable physical possessions, and misbehavior of the child would not cause harm to others' property.<ref name="Diamond">{{cite book |last1=Diamond |first1=Jared |title=The World Until Yesterday |url=https://archive.org/details/worlduntilyester00diam_0 |url-access=registration |date=2013 |publisher=Viking |isbn=978-1-101-60600-1 |at=Ch. 5}}</ref>

Researchers who have lived among the [[Parakanã]] and [[Ju/'hoansi]] people, as well as some [[Aboriginal Australians]], have written about the absence of the physical punishment of children in those cultures.<ref name="Gray">{{cite journal |last=Gray |first=Peter |date=2009 |title=Play as a Foundation for Hunter-Gatherer Social Existence |journal=American Journal of Play |volume=1 |issue=4 |pages=476–522 |url=http://www.journalofplay.org/issues/1/4/article/play-foundation-hunter-gatherer-social-existence |access-date=1 October 2017 |archive-date=14 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190414143551/https://www.journalofplay.org/issues/1/4/article/play-foundation-hunter-gatherer-social-existence |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Wilson writes:

{{quote|Probably the only generalization that can be made about the use of physical punishment among primitive tribes is that there was no common procedure [...] Pettit concludes that among primitive societies corporal punishment is rare, not because of the innate kindliness of these people but because it is contrary to developing the type of individual personality they set up as their ideal [...] An important point to be made here is that we cannot state that physical punishment as a motivational or corrective device is 'innate' to man.{{sfnp|Wilson|1971|loc=2.1}}}}

===Antiquity===
[[File:Whipping of an incarcerated delinquent, Germany 17th century.jpg|thumb|Birching, Germany, 17th century]]In the [[Western world]], the corporal punishment of children has traditionally been used by adults in authority roles.<ref>Rich, John M. (December 1989). [https://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/30182058?uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&sid=21104806765033 "The Use of Corporal Punishment".] ''The Clearing House'', Vol. 63, No. 4, pp. 149–152.</ref> Beating one's son as a form of punishment is even recommended in the [[book of Proverbs]]:

{{quote|He that spareth the rod, hateth his son; but he that loveth him, chasteneth him betimes. (Proverbs 13:24)

A fool's lips enter into contention, and his mouth calleth for strokes. (Proverbs 18:6)

Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying. (Proverbs 19:18)

Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it from him. (Proverbs 22:15)

Withhold not correction from the child; for if thou beatest him with a rod, thou shalt deliver his soul from hell. (Proverbs 23:13–14)|<ref>{{cite thesis |last1=Wilson |first1=Robert M. |title=A Study of Attitudes Towards Corporal Punishment as an Educational Procedure From the Earliest Times to the Present |url= http://www.zona-pellucida.com/wilson01.html |publisher=University of Victoria |date=1971 |at=2.3 |oclc=15767752}}</ref>{{efn|It has been debated among scholars as to whether what is encouraged in the [[book of Proverbs]] is the corporal punishment of a "child" or a "young man". The word translated "child" in most cases in the Bible refers to a young man rather than a child.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Leeb |first1=Carolyn |title=Away from the Father's House |date=2000 |publisher=Sheffield Academic Press |location=Sheffield |isbn=1-84127-105-5}}</ref>}}}}

Robert McCole Wilson argues that, "Probably this attitude comes, at least in part, from the desire in the patriarchal society for the elder to maintain his authority, where that authority was the main agent for social stability. But these are the words that not only justified the use of physical punishment on children for over a thousand years in Christian communities, but ordered it to be used. The words were accepted with but few exceptions; it is only in the last two hundred years that there has been a growing body of opinion that differed. Curiously, the gentleness of Christ towards children (Mark, X) was usually ignored".{{sfnp|Wilson|1971|loc=2.3}}

[[File:Falaka-Iran.jpg|thumb|right|200px|[[Foot whipping]] an offender, Persia, 1910s]]

Corporal punishment was practised in [[Ancient Egypt|Egypt]], [[Ancient China|China]], [[Ancient Greece|Greece]], and [[Roman Empire|Rome]] in order to maintain judicial and educational discipline.{{sfnp|Wilson|1971|loc=2.3–2.6}} [[Disfigured]] Egyptian criminals were exiled to [[Tjaru]] and [[Rhinocorura]] on the [[Sinai Peninsula|Sinai]] border, a region whose name meant "[[rhinectomy|cut-off noses]]." Corporal punishment was prescribed in ancient Israel, but it was limited to 40 lashes.<ref>Deuteronomy 25:1-3</ref> In China, some criminals were also disfigured but other criminals were tattooed. Some states gained a reputation for their cruel use of such punishments; [[Sparta]], in particular, used them as part of a disciplinary regime which was designed to increase willpower and physical strength.{{sfnp|Wilson|1971|loc=2.5}} Although the Spartan example was extreme, corporal punishment was possibly the most frequent type of punishment. In the Roman Empire, the maximum penalty which a Roman citizen could receive under the law was 40 "lashes" or 40 "strokes" with a whip which was applied to the back and shoulders, or 40 lashes or strokes with the "''[[fasces]]''" (similar to a birch rod, but consisting of 8–10 lengths of willow rather than birch) which were applied to the buttocks. Such punishments could draw blood, and they were frequently inflicted in public.

[[Quintilian]] ({{circa|35}} – {{circa|100}}) voiced some opposition to the use of corporal punishment. According to Wilson, "probably no more lucid indictment of it has been made in the succeeding two thousand years".{{sfnp|Wilson|1971|loc=2.5}}

{{quote|By that boys should suffer corporal punishment, though it is received by custom, and Chrysippus makes no objection to it, I by no means approve; first, because it is a disgrace, and a punishment fit for slaves, and in reality (as will be evident if you imagine the age change) an affront; secondly, because, if a boy's disposition be so abject as not to be amended by reproof, he will be hardened, like the worst of slaves, even to stripes; and lastly, because, if one who regularly exacts his tasks be with him, there will not be the need of any [[chastisement]] (Quintilian, Institutes of Oratory, 1856 edition, I, III).{{sfnp|Wilson|1971|loc=2.5}}}}

[[Plutarch]], also in the first century, writes:

{{quote|This also I assert, that children ought to be led to honourable practices by means of encouragement and reasoning, and most certainly not by blows or ill-treatment, for it surely is agreed that these are fitting rather for slaves than for the free-born; for so they grow numb and shudder at their tasks, partly from the pain of the blows, partly from the degradation.<ref>{{citation |author=Plutarch |url=http://www.loebclassics.com/view/plutarch-moralia_education_children/1927/pb_LCL197.41.xml |title=Moralia. The Education of Children |publisher=Loeb Classical Library. Harvard University Press, 1927.}}</ref>}}

[[Image:Koerperstrafe- MA Birkenrute.png|thumb|right|280px|[[Birching]] on the buttocks]]

===Middle Ages===
In [[Medieval Europe]], the [[Byzantine Empire]] [[Blinding (punishment)|blinded]] and [[Rhinectomy|removed the noses]] of some criminals and rival emperors. Their belief that the emperor should be physically ideal meant that such disfigurement notionally disqualified the recipient from office. (The second reign of [[Justinian II|Justinian the Slit-nosed]] was the notable exception.) Elsewhere, corporal punishment was encouraged by the attitudes of the [[History of the Catholic Church|Catholic church]] towards the human body, [[flagellation]] being a common means of self-discipline. This had an influence on the use of corporal punishment in schools, as educational establishments were closely attached to the church during this period. Nevertheless, corporal punishment was not used uncritically; as early as the 11th century [[Saint Anselm]], [[Archbishop of Canterbury]] was speaking out against what he saw as the excessive use of corporal punishment in the treatment of children.<ref>Wicksteed, Joseph H. ''The Challenge of Childhood: An Essay on Nature and Education'', Chapman & Hall, London, 1936, pp. 34–35. {{OCLC|3085780}}</ref>

===Modernity===
From the 16th century onwards, new trends were seen in corporal punishment. Judicial punishments were increasingly turned into public spectacles, with public beatings of criminals intended as a deterrent to other would-be offenders. Meanwhile, early writers on education, such as [[Roger Ascham]], complained of the arbitrary manner in which children were punished.<ref>Ascham, Roger. ''The scholemaster'', John Daye, London, 1571, p. 1. Republished by Constable, London, 1927. {{OCLC|10463182}}</ref>

Peter Newell writes that perhaps the most influential writer on the subject was the English philosopher [[John Locke]], whose ''[[Some Thoughts Concerning Education]]'' explicitly criticised the central role of corporal punishment in education. Locke's work was highly influential, and may have helped influence Polish legislators to ban corporal punishment from Poland's schools in 1783, the first country in the world to do so.<ref>Newell, Peter (ed.). ''A Last Resort? Corporal Punishment in Schools'', Penguin, London, 1972, p. 9 {{ISBN|0140806989}}</ref>
[[File:Women&#039;s prison punishment (early modern era).jpg|thumb|Corporal punishment in a women's prison in the United States (ca. 1890)]]
[[File:Jean-Baptiste Le Prince, Supplice des batogues (c. 1765–1766).png|thumb|right|210px|[[Batog]], corporal punishment in the Russian Empire]]
[[File:Husaga (teckning av Fritz von Dardel).jpg|thumb|right|200px|Husaga (the right of the master of the household to corporally punish his servants) was outlawed in [[Sweden]] for adults in 1858.]]
A consequence of this mode of thinking was a reduction in the use of corporal punishment in the 19th century in Europe and North America. In some countries this was encouraged by scandals involving individuals seriously hurt during acts of corporal punishment. For instance, in Britain, popular opposition to punishment was encouraged by two significant cases, the death of [[Death of Frederick John White|Private Frederick John White]], who died after a military [[flogging]] in 1846,<ref>Barretts, C.R.B. [http://www.thequeensownhussars.co.uk/fjwhite.htm ''The History of The 7th Queen's Own Hussars Vol. II''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111003161113/http://www.thequeensownhussars.co.uk/fjwhite.htm |date=3 October 2011 }}.</ref> and the [[Eastbourne manslaughter|death of Reginald Cancellor]], killed by his schoolmaster in 1860.<ref>Middleton, Jacob (2005). "Thomas Hopley and mid-Victorian attitudes to corporal punishment". ''History of Education''.</ref> Events such as these mobilised public opinion and, by the late nineteenth century, the extent of corporal punishment's use in state schools was unpopular with many parents in England.<ref name="historytoday">Middleton, Jacob (November 2012). [http://www.historytoday.com/jacob-middleton/spare-rod "Spare the Rod"]. ''History Today'' (London).</ref> Authorities in Britain and some other countries introduced more detailed rules for the infliction of corporal punishment in government institutions such as schools, prisons and reformatories. By the First World War, parents' complaints about disciplinary excesses in England had died down, and corporal punishment was established as an expected form of school discipline.<ref name="historytoday"/>

In the 1870s, courts in the United States overruled the common-law principle that a husband had the right to "physically chastise an errant wife".<ref>Calvert, R. "Criminal and civil liability in husband-wife assaults", in ''Violence in the family'' (Suzanne K. Steinmetz and Murray A. Straus, eds.), Harper & Row, New York, 1974. {{ISBN|0-396-06864-2}}</ref> In the UK, the traditional right of a husband to inflict moderate corporal punishment on his wife in order to keep her "within the bounds of duty" was similarly removed in 1891.<ref>[http://www.lawteacher.net/family-law-resources/domestic-violence.php ''R. v Jackson''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140907012332/http://www.lawteacher.net/family-law-resources/domestic-violence.php |date=7 September 2014 }}, [1891] 1 QB 671, abstracted at LawTeacher.net.</ref><ref>{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Corporal Punishment |volume=7 |pages=189–190}}</ref> See [[Domestic violence]] for more information.

In the United Kingdom, the use of judicial corporal punishment declined during the first half of the twentieth century and it was abolished altogether in the [[Criminal Justice Act 1948|Criminal Justice Act, 1948 (zi & z2 GEo. 6. CH. 58.)]], whereby whipping and flogging were outlawed except for use in very serious internal prison discipline cases,<ref>[http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1948/58%20/pdfs/ukpga_19480058_en.pdf Criminal Justice Act, 1948] zi & z2 GEo. 6. CH. 58., pp. 54–55.</ref> while most other European countries had abolished it earlier. Meanwhile, in many schools, the use of the cane, paddle or [[tawse]] remained commonplace in the UK and the United States until the 1980s. In rural areas of the Southern United States, and in several other countries, it still is: see [[School corporal punishment]].