CORPORAL PUNISHMENT

(Physical Torture)

Torture, flogging, beating, branding, mutilation, and binding are among the means of corporal
punishment (any physical pain inflicted short of death). Many tortures were used to extract a
"confession" from the accused, often resulting to match the crime with an "appropriate" punishment.
Early Babylonian law developed the principle of lex talionis, which asserted that criminals
should receive as punishment precisely those injuries they had inflicted upon their victims. Many
subsequent societies applied the "eye-for-an-eye and tooth-for-a-tooth" principle quite literally in
dealing with offenders.

FLOGGING
 a punishment in which the victim is hit repeatedly with a whip or
stick.
Otherwise known as whipping, flogging became a common
punishment in all Western civilizations. The method was used
particularly to preserve discipline in domestic, military, and academic
settings. The administration was commonly done by a short lash at the
end of a solid handle about three feet long, or by a whip made in nine
knotted wires, lines, or cords fastened to a handle (cat-o'-nine-tails),
sometimes with barbed-wire spikes worked into the knots.

THE BRAZEN BULL

The brazen bull, also known as the bronze bull, Sicilian bull,
or bull of Phalaris, was an alleged torture and execution device
designed in ancient Greece.
The brazen bull was a hollow brass statue crafted to
resemble a real bull. Victims were placed inside, usually with their
tongues cut out first. The door was shut, sealing them in. Fire would
be lit around the bull. This device was invented by a Greek named
Perillus (Perilaus in some sources) for a tyrant named Phalaris of
Agrigentum. Expecting a handsome reward for his creativity,
Perillus instead became the first person placed inside the Brazen
Bull. By some reports, Phalaris himself became an eventual victim
of the bull when his subjects grew tired of his maltreatment.
 TORTURE WHEEL
The breaking wheel, also known as the execution wheel, the
Wheel of Catherine or the (Saint) Catherine('s) Wheel, was a
torture method used for public execution primarily in Europe from
antiquity through the Middle Ages up to the 19th century by
breaking the bones of a criminal or bludgeoning(club) them to
death.
Wheels were adapted to many torturous uses. They could be
part of a stretching rack, but medieval torturers were far too
creative to leave it at that. Early torturers were fond of tying
someone to a large wooden wheel, then pushing it down on a rocky
hillside. A more elaborate method involved a wheel mounted to an
A-frame that allowed it to swing freely.
The victim would be tied to the wheel and then swung across
some undesirable thing below- the fire was always a good choice,
but dragging the victim's flesh across metal spikes also worked
well. The wheel itself could also have spikes mounted on it, so the
pain came from all directions. Instead of swinging, the wheel might
turn into an axle. The difference was likely immaterial to the victims.
PUBLIC HUMILIATION OR SHAMING
A form of punishment whose main feature is
dishonoring or disgracing a person, usually an
offender or a prisoner, especially in a public place.
The purpose of this was to put the offender to
shame. This was affected by the use of stocks and
pillories, docking stool, branding, shaving of the hair
etc.

PILLORY
 GALLEY SLAVERY
A galley slave was a slave rowing in a galley, either a
convicted criminal sentenced to work at the oar or a kind of
human chattel, sometimes a prisoner of war, assigned to the
duty of rowing.
Originally the forced rowing of vessels was
exclusively the function of slaves or men captured in battle,
but it came to be the lot to some convicts, often as a reprieve
from the gallows. According to a proclamation of Queen
Elizabeth 1 in 1602, the galleys were considered more
merciful than ordinary civil punishment, even though the
oarsmen might claim in bondage for life.
BANISHMENT OR TRANSPORTATION
From the ancient people who disobeyed the
rules were cast out or banished, from the community.
This practice was maintained in Europe until the
Middle Ages when the antisocial elements of one
country were in effect being exchanged for those of
another.
Transportation removed the offender from
society, mostly permanently, but was seen as more
merciful than capital punishment. This method was
used for criminals, debtors, military prisoners, and
political prisoners. Penal transportation was also used
as a method of colonization.

Contemporary Forms of Punishment

1. Imprisonment - the most common form of punishment. Putting offenders in prison for the
purpose of protecting the public and at the same time rehabilitating by requiring the latter to
undergo institutional treatment programs.
2. Payment of Fines -This is common to violations of minor offenses. However, there are crimes
where fines are imposed with imprisonment.
3. Parole - defined as a procedure by which prisoners are selected for release or the basis of
individual response to the progress within the correctional institution and service by which they
are provided the necessary controls and guidance as they serve the remainder of their
sentence within the free community.
4. Conditional pardon- Executive clemency power to be exercised exclusively by the Chief
Executive/President. The imposition of conditions is likewise within the discretion of the
President.
5. Probation- it is a procedure under which an accused found guilty of a crime is released by the
court with conditions and subject to the supervision of the probation officer.
6. Death penalty- sentencing a convicted person to death, especially those who are convicted of
heinous crimes.
7. Corporal punishment - Physical torture as punishment shirt to the death penalty is still
practiced in other states but not here in the Philippines because of the constitutional prohibition
for such imposition.
8. Banishment- Otherwise known as transportation, this is carried out by sending or putting
away of an offender either by the prohibition against coming into a specified territory, or a
prohibition against going outside a specified territory, such as island to where the offender has
been removed.
9. Community service -Like payment of fines, this is imposing to those simple infraction of laws.