Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-5xszh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-29T10:02:35.226Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

1 - Historical and Anthropological Approaches

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 December 2020

Get access

Summary

Problems of Definition

Corporal punishment is a misleadingly familiar term, in that it suggests a group of penal measures that is distinct from others. In practice, few punishments are not corporal. That is to say, most licit penalties – now as in the past – can involve bodily damage, brief or lasting physical alteration, or simply mild, acute, or chronic pain, even if they are not ostensibly violent or designed to be painful or generally consequential to an offender's body. The slippery slope can begin from auspicious places. In the Netherlands, for instance, recent legislation obligates DUI offenders above a certain category to install so-called alcohol locks in their cars, gadgets that can determine both before and during driving what a person's blood/alcohol level is, and disable the ignition accordingly. As a control apparatus to avoid recidivism and indeed as a penal measure causing some discomfort, the alcohol key seems apt. In practice, however, the tube through which drivers must blow appears to be rather sensitive. According to one complaint, traces of cigarettes, fruit, and even ice cream may prevent the car from starting or cause it to stop, thereby imposing a much broader corporal regime than the law intended.

The unintended physical consequences of the Dutch program are far from unique. Take monetary fines, by far the most common form of punishment at present (and were it to denote the full range of economic sanctions, including the confiscation or destruction of property, it would constitute the most prevalent form of punishment in human history). Fines are meant to hurt a culprit's pocket, sometimes even dramatically. But it is easy to imagine how parting with a substantial sum of money might have health implications, such as limited access to medical care (especially when health insurance is not mandatory), an imbalanced diet, or in extreme cases even hunger and disease. Depending on the particular circumstances of one's life, being fined even modestly could also require making certain lifestyle adjustments leading to increased health risks, such as how one travels, how much one works and in what kind of environment, and of course where one lives. Other dangers could be even further removed from the punishment itself but no less clear and present, for example spiraling debt and unpleasant encounters with state-, corporate-, or private collection agencies dispensing offers you cannot refuse.

Type
Chapter
Information
Flogging Others
Corporal Punishment and Cultural Identity from Antiquity to the Present
, pp. 21 - 28
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Print publication year: 2014

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×