Issues of Corporal Punishment Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Issues of Corporal Punishment - Research Paper Example According to Farrell, the existence of corporal punishment has diminished in Western society, but the practice is still continued in non-western societies, and the politicians of the western society keep on trying to making this punishment method a part of their legal system. Corporal punishment has existed in schooling systems and questions have been raised against and support has been given in the favour of corporal punishment in educational institutes. Activities that are categorized as Corporal punishment includes: whipping, gagging, flogging etc. These activities were practiced in US as well as Europeans nations for several years. Graeme Newman, a supporter of Corporal Punishment has stated in his work that activities such as electric shocks that are listed under the corporal punishment regime should be assigned for even smaller degree of crimes (Howard, 2001, p.259). He supports this kind of punishment over prison period because he believes that this punishment is equal to the crime committed and prison period cannot be compare to the crime committed. He is even in favour of corporal punishment as he believes that punishment has lower economic costs as compared to prison period. Body History The history of corporal punishment can be traced back to the period of tenth century and its existence can be traced in the educational and legal system of Rome and Egypt. Certain nations were highly popular for using such way of punishing individuals, one of such nations was Sparta, and during this period this means of penalizing individuals was most commonly used. During the Roman period the minimum corporal punishment assigned to an individual was forty counts of strokes with a whip or lash on the back and in certain cases fasces were applied on an individual’s buttocks. Such punished were carried to the extent of making the criminal bleed and these punishments were made public with the objective of creating an example out of these punishments and to inflict fear in the citizens. During the 5th and the 15th century, same practices were conducted and encouraged by the churches of that period in Europe. Due to the educational system’s close attachment to the churches of that period, these methods of disciplining individuals were even adopted by educational institutes. This treatment was never opposed before the 11th century, during 11th century, it gain criticism as it was being used continuously to discipline children and the degree of this punishment was considered very high. Corporal punishment experienced a complete switch during the 16th century. During this period these punishments were made available for the public’s eyes to inflict fear in those who have never committed a crime or who were potential future criminals. During this period Roger Ascham was one of those who criticized the use of corporal punishment in educational institutes. Another popular criticizer was John Locke, he openly criticized its use in educa tional institutes and due to his continuous criticism, this way of penalizing children in educational institutes was banned by the policy makers and educators of Poland during 1783 and Poland gained recognition as the first country every to do so (Hastings, 1971, p.144). This way of punishing individuals gained further criticism during the 18th century by policy makers and