Corporal punishment is the deliberate infliction of pain as retribution for an offence, or for the purpose of disciplining or reforming a wrongdoer, or to deter attitudes or behaviour deemed unacceptable. The term usually refers to methodically striking the offender with an implement, whether in judicial, domestic, or educational settings.
Corporal punishment may be divided into three main types:
- parental or domestic corporal punishment: within the family -- typically, children punished by parents or guardians;
- school corporal punishment: within schools, when students are punished by teachers or school administrators;
- judicial corporal punishment: as part of a criminal sentence ordered by a court of law. Closely related is prison corporal punishment, ordered either directly by the prison authorities or by a visiting court.
The corporal punishment of minors within the home is lawful in all 50 of the United States and, according to a 2000 survey, it is widely approved by parents.[1] It has been officially outlawed in 24 countries around the world.[2]
Corporal punishment in school is still legal in some parts of the world, including 20 of the States of the USA, but has been outlawed in other places, including Canada, Japan, South Africa, New Zealand, and nearly all of Europe except the Czech Republic[3] and France.[4]
Judicial corporal punishment has virtually disappeared from the western world but remains in force in many parts of Africa and Asia.
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