Before the development of prisons there were other early forms of punishment, including flogging. Describe some other early forms of punishment that often were cruel and harmful to the convicted person

Question

List at least three different early forms of punishment and give examples of each.

Answer 1

Flogging –Historically, the most widely used of physical punishment was flogging. Whipping was widely used in England throughout the Middle Ages, and some offenders were said to have been beaten as they ran through the streets, hands tied behind their backs. English colonists carried the practice of flogging with them to the New World.
Branding – Branding was used to readily identify convicted offenders and to warn others with whom they might come in contact of their dangerous potential.
Mutilation – Throughout history, various societies have amputated the hands of thieves and robbers, blinded spies, and castrated rapists. Blasphemers had their tongues ripped out, and pickpockets suffered broken fingers. Extensive mutilation, which included cutting off the ears and ripping out the tongue, was instituted in eleventh-century Britain and imposed on hunters who poached on royal lands.
Public humiliation – Many early punishments were designed to humiliate offenders in public and to allow members of the community an opportunity for vengeance. The stocks and pillory were two such punishments.
Workhouses –In the belief that poverty was caused by laziness, governments were quick to create workhouses designed to instill "habits of industry" in the unemployed. The first workhouse in Europe opened in 1557 and taught work habits.
Exile –Many societies have banished criminals.