WHIPPING. Corporal punishment by whipping, public as well as private, was for merly often awarded by the crinlinal law of England for minor offenses, such as petty larceny, and was not unfrequently superadded to srMe other punishment, such as imprisonment or the pillory. In early times, and by the usage of the star-chamber, whipping could not be competently inflicted on a gentlemen.—In Scotland sentence of whipping was also frequent, the terms of the sentence sometimes requiring it to be repeated at intervals and in different parts of the kingdom. In the last century the Scottish burgh magistrates were in the habit of awarding sentence of whipping on sum mary convictions for police offenses, such as broils, street outrages, and the keeping of disorderly houses; but in modern practice the competency of inflicting this sentence at common law without the intervention of a jury has been made matter of doubt. Whip ping used not long since to be an occasional addition to the sentence of the justiciary court on persons convicted of aggravated assaults.
The infliction of corporal punishment by whipping on women was prohibited by act 1 Geo. W. c. 67. In act 5 and 6 Viet. c. 51, directed against attempts to injure or alarm the queen by discharging fire-arms in her majesty's neighborhood, or otherwise, the infliction of public or private whipping not exceeding three times is made part of the punishment. Act 26 and 26 Vict. c. 44 (netapplicable to Scotland) authorizes whipping in addition to penal servitude in convictions for robbery, assaults with intent to rob, and attempts to strangle or render insensible with a of committing a crime, the number of strokes not exceeding 50 in the case of an adult, or 25 in the case of a boy under 16.
Recent legislation, both in England and Scotland, has made various provisions for the infliction of this description of corporal punishment on juvenile culprits. of boys under 16 for various offenses is authorized by the English criminal consolidation act (1861); it provided that the whipping is to be private, and not repeated more than once, and the instrument of punishment to be specified in the sentence. Similar provisions, with some additional ones, occur in 25 Vict. c. 18, as to the mode in which the same punishment is to be administered on summary convictions by justices. In Scot-. land, the prisons amendment act, 14 and 15 Vict. c. 27, and the act 23 and 24 Vict. c. 105, which superceded it, authorize the whipping of bop under regulations made by the lord advocate and approved by the secretary of state. By act 25 Vict. c. 18, no person above the age of 16 can now be whipped in Scotland for theft, or any crime against per son or property. It is a very general impression among magistrates that whipping to the moderate extent allowed by 26 and 27 Vict. has had a most salutary effect in repres sing certain kinds of outrage,the apprehension of mere imprisonment, or even of penal servitude, having little efficacy in the way of prevention. Thus, personal chastisement, the oldest form of punishment for crime, has to a certain extent been resumed in the administration of the criminal law.
As regards corporal punishment in the army and navy, see FLOGGING.