A corporal punishment or a physical punishment is a punishment which is intended to cause physical pain to a person. When it is inflicted on minors, especially in home and school settings, its methods may include spanking or paddling. When it is inflicted on adults, it may be inflicted on prisoners and slaves.
Physical punishments for crimes or injuries, including floggings, brandings, and even mutilations, were practised in most civilizations since ancient times. With the growth of humanitarian ideals since the Enlightenment, such punishments are increasingly viewed as inhumane in Occidental societies. By the late 20th century, corporal punishment had been eliminated from the legal systems of most developed countries.In the twenty-first century, the legality of corporal punishment in various settings differs by jurisdiction. Internationally, the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries saw the application of human rights law to the question of corporal punishment in a number of contexts:
Corporal punishment in the home, the punishment of children by parents or other adult guardians, is legal in most of the world, but, as of 2018, 58 countries, mostly in Europe and Latin America, have banned the practice.
School corporal punishment, of students by teachers or school administrators, has been banned in many countries, including Canada, Kenya, South Africa, New Zealand and all of Europe. It remains legal, if increasingly less common, in some states of the United States and Australia.
Judicial corporal punishment, such as Pillory Stocks, as part of a criminal sentence ordered by a court of law, has long disappeared from most European countries. However, as of November 2017, it remains lawful in parts of Africa, Asia, the Anglophone Caribbean and indigenous communities of Ecuador and Colombia.
Prison corporal punishment or disciplinary corporal punishment, ordered by prison authorities or carried out directly by staff, such as was the practice in the Australian penal colonies.
Corporal punishment is or was allowed in some military settings in a few jurisdictions.
In the past, it was practised on apprentices by their masters.In many Western countries, medical and human-rights organizations oppose the corporal punishment of children. Campaigns against corporal punishment have aimed to bring about legal reforms in order to ban the use of corporal punishment against minors in homes and schools.
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