Corporal Punishment Defined
Corporal punishment is the deliberate infliction of pain as retribution for an offence, or for the purpose of disciplining or reforming a wrongdoer, or to deter attitudes or behavior deemed unacceptable. The term usually refers to methodically striking the offender with an implement, whether in judicial, domestic, or educational settings.
Corporal punishment may be divided into three main types:
- parental or domestic corporal punishment: within the family—typically, children punished by parents or guardians;
- school corporal punishment: within schools, when students are punished by teachers or school administrators;
- judicial corporal punishment: as part of a criminal sentence ordered by a court of law. Closely related is prison corporal punishment, ordered either directly by the prison authorities or by a visiting court .
Corporal punishment of minors within domestic settings is lawful in all 50 of the United States and, according to a 2000 survey, is widely approved by parents
Corporal punishment in the home
Domestic corporal punishment, i.e. of children and adolescents by their parents, is usually referred to colloquially as
A hard strapping
“spanking“, “whipping“, “smacking,” or “slapping.”
In an increasing number of countries it has been outlawed, starting with Sweden in 1979. In some other countries, corporal punishment is legal, but restricted (e.g. blows to the head are outlawed and implements may not be used, and/or only children within a certain age range may be spanked).
In the United States and all African and most Asian nations, “spanking,” “whipping,” “smacking,” or “slapping” by parents is currently legal; it is also legal to use certain implements such as a belt or paddle.
In Canada, spanking by parents or legal guardians (but nobody else) is legal, as long as the child is not under 2 years or over 12 years of age, and no implement other than an open, bare hand is used (belts, paddles, etc. are strictly prohibited). Provinces can legally impose tighter restrictions than the aforementioned national restrictions, but none currently does so.
In the UK, spanking or smacking is legal, but it may not leave a mark on the body and in Scotland since October 2003 it has been illegal to use any implements when disciplining a child.
Corporal punishment in schools
Legal corporal punishment of school students for misbehavior involves striking the student on the buttocks or the palm of the hand in a premeditated ceremony with an implement specially kept for the purpose such as a rattan cane or spanking paddle, or with the open hand.
Paddled by the Principal
It is not to be confused with cases where a teacher lashes out on the spur of the moment, which is not “corporal punishment” but violence or brutality, and is illegal almost everywhere.
Corporal punishment used to be prevalent in schools in many parts of the world, but in recent decades it has been outlawed in nearly all of Europe, and in Japan, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand and other countries. It remains commonplace and lawful in many Asian, African and Caribbean countries.
In the United States, the Supreme Court ruled in Ingraham v. Wright (1977) that school corporal punishment does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment. Paddling is used in schools in a number of Southern states, though it is on the decline. However, 30 states ban corporal punishment in public schools, and two states, New Jersey and Iowa, additionally prohibit it in private schools.
In Canada, corporal punishment has been banned in public and private schools since 2004. Every province but Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Ontario already had provincial bans prior to 2004. The first province to ban school corporal punishment was British Columbia, in 1973.
In the UK, corporal punishment was outlawed in state schools in 1987 and in all private schools by 2003.
Corporal punishment of male students has, in most cultures, generally been more prevalent and more severe than that of female students. In Queensland, Australia, school corporal punishment of girls was banned in 1934, but for boys in private schools it is still legal as of 2010.In Singapore and Malaysia, schoolboys are routinely caned for misbehavior while the caning of girls at school is forbidden by law. In the U.S., statistics consistently show that about 80% of school paddlings are of boys.
Judicial or quasi-judicial punishment
Countries with judicial corporal punishment
Some countries retain judicial corporal punishment, including a number of former British territories such as Botswana, Malaysia, Singapore and Tanzania. In Malaysia and Singapore, for certain specified offences, males are routinely sentenced to caning in addition to a prison term. The Singaporean practice of caning became much discussed around the world in 1994 when American teenager Michael P. Fay was caned for vandalism.
A number of countries with an Islamic legal system, such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Sudan and northern Nigeria, employ judicial whipping for a range of offences. As of 2009, some regions of Pakistan are experiencing a breakdown of law and government, leading to a reintroduction of
Judicial Caning
corporal punishment by ad hoc Islamic court As well as floggings, Saudi Arabia uses amputations or mutilation as a method of punishment. Such penalties are highly controversial. However, the term “corporal punishment” has since the 19th century usually meant caning, flogging or whipping rather than other kinds of physical penalties such as amputation.