CORPORAL PUNISHMENT. Punishment by the infliction of pain or hardship upon the body. as hy confinement in the stocks, branding. or flogging. l)rdinarily the term is understood to refer only to flogging or whipping of the body.
Much has been said for and against this last kind of punishment, both as a means of public and private correction. The contention of those who oppose its use and deny its value is that it degrades the one punished and the one who exe cutes the punishment, and that it tends to de teriorate the character of the person punished by taking away his self-respect. Those who favor it generally admit that severe floggings which lacerate the body or which are socon trived as to cause extreme agony, as itiethe basti nado, do cause a degeneration in the moral char acter of the victim which increases his tendency to repeat his offense or commit others in spite of the danger of the second punishment, and that this is especially the case when such punishment is inflicted publicly. But they claim, with ap parent truth, that whipping which produces stinging but transient pain, without the body and without such public disgrace as to destroy the sense of shame, is an efficient cor rective for those cruel, or brutal, or intractable offenders, such as wife and child beaters, who are insensible to the punishment of confinement or other ordinary penalties which are far more protracted and of much greater expense to the State. In such cases a smart whipping. not
brutally inflicted, seems to exercise a control over tbe offender, without the long confinement which often necessarily removes from a dependent family its only means of support. Corporal punishment at the hands of public officers as a punishment for crime is usually inflicted by flogging in prison or at the public whipping-post. Further information will be given under the title, FLOGGING; WHIPPING.
The authority of the husband, parent, guar dian, and schoolmaster to inflict corporal punish ment upon the wife, child, or pupil will be con sidered under the titles HUSBAND AND WIFE; GUARDIAN; WARD; PARENT AND CHILD; SCHOOL MASTER, etc. See also the article APPRENTICE. For a bibliography of corporal punishment as a punishment for crime, consult the authorities referred to under the titles PENOLOGY; CRIMI NOLOGY.