A corporal punishment or a physical punishment is a punishment which is intended to cause physical pain to a person. When it is inflicted on minors, especially in home and school settings, its methods may include spanking or paddling. When it is inflicted on adults, it may be inflicted on prisoners and slaves, and can involve methods such as whipping with a belt or a horsewhip.
Birching, Germany, 17th century
Depiction of a flogging at Oregon State Penitentiary, 1908
Foot whipping an offender, Persia, 1910s
Corporal punishment in a women's prison in the United States (ca. 1890)
Punishment, commonly, is the imposition of hated or unpleasant outcome upon a group or individual, meted out by an authority—in contexts ranging from child discipline to criminal law—as a response and deterrent to a particular action or behavior that is deemed undesirable or unacceptable. It is, however, possible to distinguish between various different understandings of what punishment is.
The old village stocks in Chapeltown, Lancashire, England
A modern jail cell
Hester Prynne at the Stocks—an engraved illustration from an 1878 edition of The Scarlet Letter
Punishment of an offender in Hungary, 1793