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Corporal Punishment is a form of physical Punishment that involves the deliberate infliction of Pain as retribution for an offense, 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 is defined by the UN Committee on the Rights Of The as:

"All and any punishment in which physical force is used and intended to cause some degree of pain or discomfort, however light".

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Corporal Punishment may be divided into three main types:

~ Parental or domestic Corporal Punishment: within the family — typically, Punished by parents or guardians;

~ School Corporal Punishment: within schools - when students are Punished by teachers or school Administrators, or, in the past, apprentices by Master Craftsmen;

~ 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 is also still allowed in some military settings, and banned in others.

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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. It has been officially outlawed in 32 countries.

Corporal Punishment in school has been outlawed in Canada, Kenya, Korea, South Africa, New Zealand and nearly all of Europe, except France. It remains legal in some parts of the world, including 19 States of the USA.

Judicial Corporal Punishment has virtually disappeared from the Western world, but remains in force in many parts of Africa and Asia.

There are various National and International campaigns against Corporal Punishment.

According to its proponents, Corporal Punishment offers several advantages over other kinds of Punishment, such as that it is quicker to implement, costs nothing, and deters unruliness.

The American Psychological Association opposes the use of Corporal Punishment in schools, juvenile facilities, child care nurseries and all other institutions, public or private, where children are cared for or educated.
It claims that Corporal Punishment is violent and unnecessary, may lower self-esteem, and is liable to instil hostility and rage without reducing the undesired behavior. The APA also states that Corporal Punishment is likely to train children to use physical violence.

The professor of philosophy, David Benatar, points out that using this last argument, fining people also teaches that forcing others to give up some of their property is an acceptable response to unwanted behavior in others:

"Why don't detentions, imprisonments, fines and a multitude of other Punishments convey equally undesirable messages?"

According to Benatar, the key difference lies in the legitimacy of the authority administering the punishment:

"There is all the difference in the world between legitimate authorities — the judiciary, parents, or teachers — using punitive powers responsibly to Punish wrongdoing, and children or private citizens going around beating each other, locking each other up, and extracting financial tributes (such as lunch money). There is a vast moral difference here and there is no reason why children should not learn about it.
Punishing children when they do wrong seems to be one important way of doing this".

Different parts of the anatomy may be targeted:

~ The buttocks, whether clothed or bare, have often been targeted for Punishment, particularly in Europe and the English-speaking world. Indeed, some languages have a specific word for their chastisement: Spanking in English, fessée in French, nalgada in Spanish (both Romanesque words directly derived from the word for buttock), klaps in Polish (derived from the name of the sound produced by Spanking). The advantage is that these fleshy body parts are robust and can be chastised accurately, without endangering any bodily functions; they heal well and relatively quickly; in some cultures Punishment applied to the buttocks entails a degree of Degradation and Humiliation, which may or may not be intended as part of the Punishment.

~ Chastising the back of the thighs and calves, as sometimes in South Korean schools, is at least as Painful if not more so, but this can cause more damage in terms of scars and bruising.

~ The upper back and the shoulders have historically been a target for Whipping (e.g., in the UK with the Cat–O'–Nine–Tails) in the Royal Navy and in some pre-1948 judicial punishments, and also today generally in the Middle East and the Islamic world.

~ The head is a very dangerous place to hit, especially "boxing the ears".

~ The hand is very sensitive and delicate, and use of an implement could cause excessive damage.

~ The soles of the feet are extremely sensitive, and Flogging them (as has been sometimes done in the Middle East), is excruciating.

Corporal Punishment in official settings, such as schools and prisons, has typically been carried out as a formal ceremony, with a standard procedure, emphasizing the solemnity of the occasion.

It may even be staged in a Ritual manner in front of other students/inmates, in order to act as a deterrent to others.

In the case of prison or judicial punishments, formal Punishment might begin with the offender stripped of some, or all, of their clothing and secured to a piece of furniture — such as a trestle or frame (X–cross), Punishment Horse or Whipping Post. In some cases, the nature of the offense is read out and the sentence (consisting of a predetermined number of lashes/strokes) is formally imposed.

A variety of implements may be used to inflict blows on the offender.

The terms used to describe these are not fixed, varying by country and by context. There are, however, a number of common types that are encountered when reading about corporal punishment.
These include:

~ The Rod — A thin, flexible rod is often called a "Switch".

~ The Birch — A number of strong, flexible branches of birch or similar wood, bound together with twine into a single implement.

~ The Rattan Cane (not bamboo as it is often wrongly described) — Much favored in the British Commonwealth for both school and judicial use.

~ The Paddle — A flat wooden board with a handle, with or without holes. Used in US schools.

~ The Strap — A leather strap with a number of tails at one end, called a "Tawse", was used in schools in Scotland and some parts of northern England.

~ The Whip — Typically of leather. Varieties include the Russian Knout and South African Sjambok, in addition to the Scourge and the French Martinet.

~ The Cat–O'–Nine–Tails — Was used in British naval discipline and as a judicial and prison punishment.

~ The Hairbrush and Belt — Were traditionally used in the United States and Britain as an implement for domestic Spanking.

~ The Plimsoll (or, gym shoe) — Used in British and Commonwealth schools, as well as at home, often called "The Slipper Punishment".

~ The Ferula — In Jesuit schools, as vividly described in a Punishment Scene in, "A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man".

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In some instances the offender is required to prepare the implement himself.
For instance, sailors were employed in preparing the Cat–O'–Nine–Tine-Tails that would be used upon their own back, while school students were sometimes sent out to cut a Switch or a Rod.

In contrast, informal Punishments, particularly in domestic settings, tend to lack this Ritual nature and are often administered with whatever object comes to hand. It is common, for instance — for belts, wooden spoons, slippers, hairbrushes or coat hangers to be used in domestic Punishment; while rulers and other classroom equipment have been used in schools.

In parts of England, boys were once beaten under the old tradition of, "Beating The Bounds", whereby a boy was paraded around the edge of a city, or parish, and would be Spanked with a Switch, or a Cane, to mark the boundary.

One famous "Beating The Bounds" took place around the boundary of St. Giles and the area where Tottenham Court Road now stands in central London.

The actual stone that separated the boundary is now underneath the Centre Point office tower.