Public humiliation
Public humiliation was often used by local communities to punish minor and petty criminals before the age of large, modern
prisons .
Encyclopedia
Public humiliation was often used by local communities to punish minor and petty criminals before the age of large, modern
prisons .
Shameful exposure
This involved a variety of methods, most often placing a criminal in the center of town and having the local populace enact a form of "mob justice" on the individual. The punishment of public humiliation could range from anything to an offender being forced to relate his crime or just of condemnation .
The offender could alternatively be sentenced to remain exposed in a specific public place, in a restraining device. The arsenal in the
Low Countries included the
schandstoel , the
kaak or
schandpaal , the
draaikooi, customary for
adulteresses, and the
schopstoel .
In the more extreme cases being subjected to verbal and physical abuse from the crowd, which could have serious consequences especially when the hands are not free to protect himself. Some sentences actually prescribe additional humilitation, such as shaving, or combine it with painful corporal punishments, see below.
In pre-World War Japan, adulterers were publicly exposed purely to shame them.
In the modern age, judicial public humiliation punishment has largely died out, most importantly when it is outlawed as by the
United States Constitution since public humiliation is today considered cruel and unusual punishment, which is banned by the
UN Convention on Human Rights, but not precisely defined. This is why some judges are allowed to use shaming as a form of punishment, whereby an individual may have to parade in public with a sign explaining their behavior and misdeed.
Just like painful forms of corporal punishment, it has parallels in educational and other rather private punishments , in school or domestic disciplinary context, and as a
rite of passage. Physical forms include being forced to wear some sign such as
donkey ears , having to stand or kneel in a corner, or repeatedly write something on a blackboard . Here to physical discomfort or even pain can be added, such as having to hold heavy objects or kneeling on an uneven surface. Like physical punishment and harsh hazing, these have become controversial in most modern socieies, in many cases leading to legal restrictions and/or abolishment.
Painful humiliation
Apart from specific methods essentially aiming at humiliation, several methods combine pain and humiliation.
In some cases, pain or at least discomfort is insignificant or rather secondary to the humiliation, as school children made to kneel facing the blackboard, possibly on a hard object. In other cases they are roughly matched, as assuming such position while holding heavy objects.
Especially in judicial use the combination often results in a very severe punishment.
Public punishment
The simplest is to administer painful corporal punishment in public - the major aim may be deterrence of potential offenders - so the public will witness the victim's fear and agony. This can either take place in a town square or other public gathering location such as a school, or take the form of a procession trough the streets. This was not uncommon in the sentences to
Staupenschlag in various
German-speaking states, till the 19th century. A naval equivalent was flogging through the fleet on a raft taken from ship to ship for consecution installments of a great total of lashes, that could even be lethal).
- The humiliation is generally intensified if the victim is unclothed as the exposure leaves the victim feeling vulnerable and helpless.
- Even when not strictly public, humiliation can still be a psychologically "painful" aspect of punishment because of the presence of witnessing peers , relatives, staff or other onlookers, or simply because the tormentor witnesses how self-control is broken down. This is also true for punishments in class.
- Sexually promiscuous women and girls are sometimes punished by having their pubic hair cut short or their vaginas shaved bald; this is often done in public in front of a crowd.
- Public shaving was also applied to collaborators after the allied liberated occuied territories from the nazi troops; being thus marked, they would remain in danger from molestation
Torture marks
- The humiliation can be extended - intentionally or not - by leaving visible marks, such as scars, notably on body parts that are normally left visible. This also serves as a virtually indelible criminal record.
- This can even be the main intention of the punishment, as in the case of scarifications, such as branding. It invariably is essential in forms of mutilation, such as cropping, though the functional loss is even greater; pain may even be intentionally minimized as in the case of surgical amputation, eliminating the risk of accidental death.
See also
