It is the belief of some that as humanity advances, so to do our moral values. When we look at history, this becomes evident. Slavery was once practiced and accepted as legitimate all over the world, whereas today it is all but eradicated. In the realm of criminal justice, we have seen a slow but widespread phasing out of many corporal punishments deemed as exceptionally cruel. Unfortunately, there remain some isolated places and people which continue to practice some of these heinous forms of punishment. This list will look at ten of the most barbaric forms of punishment that are still practiced today.
10 Flogging
Flogging is a punishment in which a person is beat with a whip or a rod. The punishment was common up until the 19th century when it was gradually replaced by other forms of punishment, primarily imprisonment.Today flogging is widely condemned by organizations such as the United Nations and Amnesty International as being an excessively cruel form of punishment, and it has been outlawed in many countries. Yet there are still some nations which continue to practice flogging as a form of punishment including Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Sudan. In the countries that still practice flogging, the punishment can be administered to men, women, and children for a number of seemingly minor crimes, and it often takes place in public. In one particularly well-known case in 2014, a Saudi man named Raif Badawi was sentenced to 1,000 lashes and ten years in prison for “insulting Islam” on an online blog. His conviction and punishment have been protested by thousands worldwide. Despite international outcry, flogging remains an accepted form of punishment in some places.
9 Caning
Similar to flogging, caning is a form of punishment in which a person is beaten with a cane. The strikes from the cane can be extremely painful as they often break the skin and result in scarring. Like flogging, caning has been widely condemned, and yet it remains a brutal form of punishment in some places.
One of the most prolific users of caning is the Republic of Singapore. In 2012 alone, Singapore carried out 2,203 caning sentences, many of which were given to illegal immigrants and vandals. Just recently, two Germans students studying in Singapore were sentenced to nine months in prison and three strokes of the cane after they were caught spray-painting graffiti on a train. Despite the protest of numerous human rights groups, and an international charter prohibiting cruel and degrading forms of punishment, Singapore and a few other countries continue to defend the legitimacy of these harsh punishments.
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