Public humiliation

Public humiliation was often used by local communities to punish minor and petty criminals before the age of large, modern prisons (imprisonment was long unusual as a punishment, rather a method of coercion).

1. 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 be, amongst other things, an offender being forced to relate his crime, such as by exaggerated physical parody: a 'shame flute' for a bad musician or a wearing giant rosary (Dutch: schandstenen, "stones of shame") for someone late to church. The offender could alternatively be sentenced to remain exposed in a specific public place, in a restraining device.
   
   

   Painful humiliation

   
   

   Apart from specific methods essentially aiming at humiliation, several methods combine pain and humiliation or even death 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.

   [edit]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 through the streets. This was not uncommon in the sentences to Staupenschlag (whipping or birching, generally on the barebuttocks) in various German-speaking states, till the 19th century. A naval equivalent was Flogging round the fleet on a raft taken from ship to ship for consecutive installments of a great total of lashes, that could even be lethal.

   
   

   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 ear 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.