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10.3: Historical Punishments

  • Page ID
    48429
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    Historical Punishments

    Historically, most punishments were harsh and physical. In some instances, the punishment started even before a finding of guilt, in order to torture someone to confess. Once they confessed to make the torture stop, the punishment was seemingly justified and so the torture/punishment would continue. It was theorized that if the offender lived through the punishment they would never commit the crime again and since most punishments were public all the citizens doing the punishment would also be deterred.

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    Image 10.1

    Each of the European countries had various methods they used to physically punish citizens. Methods included various ways of burning, cutting, hanging, or beating the offender. Many of these punishments led to the death of the offender either somewhat quickly or sometimes much later due to blood loss and infection. Sometimes the death of the offender was planned but at other times it was just a consequence of the brutal methods used. It should be pointed out that in some countries around the globe even today their punishments are still harsh and quite physical.

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    Image 10.2


    This page titled 10.3: Historical Punishments is shared under a not declared license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Dr. Wendelin M. Hume & Sherina M. Hume.

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