Forms Of Corporal Punishment Research Articles

Defining Crime through Punishment: Sexual Assault in the Eastern Cape, c.1835–1900

This article traces the history of the punishment of sexual assault cases in South Africa's Eastern Cape region from the late pre-colonial period through the turn of the twentieth century. Sexual assault crimes provide a revealing perspective on practices of punishment because they could be, and were, adjudicated through any of the broad array of legal systems – formal and informal, customary and Roman-Dutch, civil and criminal – which characterised the legal landscape of the colonial Eastern Cape. When British administrators created a colonial legal system in the Eastern Cape in the 1850s, they faced the task of governing a Xhosa-speaking population with substantially different ideas about punishment. Compensation payments, reckoned in cattle, were the standard punishment for most wrongs in pre-colonial Xhosaland. Discipline within the family might take the form of corporal punishment, but public punishments generally did not. The reliance on compensation payments harnessed kinship obligations to the maintenance of public order. British legal thought, however, considered compensation payments appropriate only in civil cases. Even fines (payable to the state) were appropriate only for minor crimes; major crimes required imprisonment, corporal punishment, or death. This difference posed a problem for administrators attempting to secure the legitimacy of the colonial legal system. In order to induce Africans to use the colonial legal system, they needed to satisfy expectations of compensation payments. The compromise that emerged consigned compensation payments to civil disputes, where customary law was recognised, and minor criminal cases. Unwilling to trust kin networks to rein in their unruly members, British administrators insisted on punishments whose weight was born by the individual – at least in the case of ‘serious’ crimes. However, allegations of forcible, even violent, non-consensual sex continued to be adjudicated within the customary (civil) court system, where they were labelled ‘seduction’ or ‘adultery’.

Corporal Punishment of Children in Israel: A New Trend in Secular and Religious Law

The new trend of Justice Beinish, in Plonit v. The State of Israel, regarding the legal relationship between parents and children, is analyzed.This article argues that the position of Justice Beinish is justified in light of results of research that prove that corporal punishment of children causes emotional damage. In addition, it is an outcome of three legal doctrines pertaining to children in Israel: the best interest of the child, the principles of the convention on the rights of the child, and those of Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty.This article also argues that, contrary to the common view, the policy of Justice Beinish in the above matter is not distant from the viewpoint of many contemporary scholars of Jewish Law who have addressed the same matter. Some prominent Jewish scholars assert that certain circumstances do justify implementation of corporal punishment. However, the major trend in Jewish Law has been that the permission to apply this punishment in special and irregular circumstances is an exception. The major trend of Jewish Law can be characterized as a gradual yet constant attempt to impart more significance to the policy of guiding parents and educators to prefer pleasant and non-violent means of education. In recent generations this trend has become more evident. Lately, more Jewish Law scholars have stressed the dangers of corporal punishment. In addition, positive consequences could emerge in this sphere as a result of a new trend in Jewish Rabbinical courts in Israel, which grant validity to the interpretation of social workers and psychologists of the concept of the best interest of the child. These professionals act in light of recent results of scientific research on the negative effect of any type of corporal punishment; furthermore, especially in recent generations, the best interest of the child is an important consideration, and sometimes a paramount or sole consideration in Jewish law when policy on children is formulated. Therefore, this article argues that Jewish Law could shift still closer to the position of abolishing all forms of corporal punishment since they can cause physical and emotional damage to children.

Corporal Punishment and Personality Traits in the Children of St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands

This research examined different forms of corporal punishment as experienced by 155 11- to 17-year-old youths in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. The study explored the frequency, severity, fairness, deservedness, and total number of different forms of punishment experienced in relation to six negative personality dispositions: aggression, negative self-esteem, negative self-adequacy, emotional instability, emotional unresponsiveness, and negative worldview. A very high proportion of the youths reported being physically punished. The greater the variety of forms of punishment that males experienced, the more emotionally unstable, hostile/aggressive, and overall psychologically maladjusted they were. But no significant relation emerged between corporal punishment and personality variables for females. A small subgroup of highly punished females as well as males, however, reported more feelings of emotional instability, hostility, and overall psychological maladjustment than did less severely punished youths. Results are discussed within a cultural framework emphasizing the widespread acceptance of corporal punishment in Caribbean cultures.

A retrospective survey of childhood corporal punishment by school teachers in students

To ascertain the prevalence of childhood corporal punishment by teachers in students, to explore the influencing factors and associations between childhood corporal punishment and psychological problems. Five hundred and twenty-eight students from a college and a technical secondary school in Hebei province were surveyed by self-administered questionnaire anonymously in Dec. 2004. The questionnaire used for this survey mainly included (1) general demographic information; (2) 5 forms of childhood corporal punishments, in this study, cases of teachers' corporal punishments were defined as those who answered positively one or more of the 5 questions relating to childhood corporal punishment by school teachers occurring before the age of 16 years; (3) Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90); (4) Youth Risk Behaviours. Overall, 57.6% of students reported having been corporally punished at least one time, one of four forms of corporal punishment by teachers before age of 16 years, the four forms corporal punishment were non-contact corporal punishment, e.g., running for punishment, repeat-doing homework many times for punishment, standing for punishment, kneel down for punishment, not allowing to eat, sending outside in winter, etc. (53.4%), hitting/kicking/pushing very hard with open hands/fist/feet/other part of body (16.1%), beating with an object (10.2%), and locking in a small compartment/tying with rope (0.2%). No students reported having been choked, or burned/scalded, or stabbed with a sharp object by the teachers. Males had a significantly higher overall prevalence rate than females (66.4% vs. 46.6%, chi(2) = 21.01, P = 0.000). There was no statistically significant association between a history of childhood corporal punishment and the three other demographic indicators, which included residence region (rural and non-rural area) prior to 16 years of age, parental education level, and whether the respondent lived in a single or multiple children family. Compared with their peers who had not experienced childhood corporal punishment by teachers, the students with two or more forms of corporal punishments by teachers showed significantly higher scores (punished group vs. unpunished group) of psychological symptoms of somatization (0.78 vs. 0.42), obsessiveness (1.22 vs. 0.98), interpersonal sensitivity (1.24 vs. 0.89), depression (1.06 vs. 0.76), anxiety (0.90 vs. 0.64), hostility (1.11 vs. 0.68), paranoid ideation (1.11 vs. 0.71) and psychoticism (0.84 vs. 0.56), and showed significantly higher rates in sadness (54.7% vs. 26.3%), drunk (37.2% vs. 20.1%), involving in physical fighting (15.1% vs. 3.6%) in the past year and current smoking (36.0% vs. 14.5%). The problem of corporal punishment by teachers is common in schools, and the problem has a significant correlation with youth mental health problems. The results highlighted urgent needs to increase public awareness on children rights, creating learning-friendly environment in school.

Corporal Punishment

To the Editor.— The article "Hypovolemic Shock in a Child as a Consequence of Corporal Punishment"1 prompted me to reflect on several points. In their discussion and summarizing sentence, it is clear that the authors oppose any form of corporal punishment. I am concerned that this conclusion is based solely on the perceived risks (adverse effects, as evidenced in this anecdotal report) of physical punishment with no attempt to examine or study any potential benefits of physical punishment.

Inviting student self‐discipline

restricts individual freedom and personal choice. Yet educators are charged with establishing and maintaining control (usually referred to as discipline) as an essential part of education. Early approaches to discipline were primarily punitive. One of the first schoolhouses built in the United States was equipped with a whipping post (Manning, 1959) and in the good old days a vast array of devices and techniques was used to inflict physical punishment. Fear played a major role in the discipline process and students received terrifying warnings from pulpit, home, and school of what happens to disobedient children. While vestiges of a more punitive and primitive time still linger (such as paddling and other forms of corporal punishment) most contemporary methods of discipline are generally positive. Charles (1981), Dreikurs and Cassel (1974), and others have provided excellent suggestions on how to deal with misbehavior without relying on such negative forces as fear and punishment (e.g., behavior modification techniques that seek to reinforce desirable behavior while extinguishing undesirable actions). Both early and contemporary approaches, however, tend to focus on techniques, skills, or methods. This article presents an alternative approach to establishing and maintaining order which has come to be called

Building People not Building Prisons

In the popular point of view, prisons are thought of as crime fighting-devices. Hence, in the 18th century, exile, execution and exposing offenders to various forms of corporal punishment were the most common penalties for criminal acts. Although jails were commonplace, imprisonment was viewed as a temporary restriction rather than the prescribed penalty for crime. Retribution was considered as the prime motivation for official punishment.