I have to say that this discussion has struck me as an intelligent and articulate one without the venom and sarcasm that so often appears in these columns. It is so pleasant to be able to read well formed opinions fluently and coherently expressed. I only wish parliamentary debate could be conducted thus with a courtesy that is missing on a daily basis.

Perhaps I should say "generally" without venom and sarcasm.... we all get carried away sometimes in our intention to get a point across !

From my reading it seems flogging was really only a wide spread practise in either England, its colonies, or in Islamic countries, and the vast majority of the nations where it is still practised former British colonisation is a major predictor.

The barbarity of flogging was recognised and debated well over a hundred years ago.

Here is an excerpt from a book written in 1916 titled “The Flogging Craze: A Statement of the Case Against Corporal Punishment”

Quote

In all civilized, or, to speak more correctly, semi-civilized races like our own, a question arises as to the continuance or discontinuance of certain ancient customs that have descended from a barbarous past and are repellent to the more refined modern feeling. Corporal punishment is one of those immemorial customs, once widely practised and accepted as a matter of course, now the subject of very acute controversy – advocated on one side with much heat and vehemence, and on the other regarded with detestation and abhorrence by an increasing number of social reformers. What is the origin of this strong revolt against a practise which is still lauded in some quarters as wholesome and irreproachable, and what can account for such a marked a diversity of public opinion?

Doubtless, the hatred of corporal punishment is, in its origin, instinctive. We feel there is something of a degradation in its infliction – degrading alike to those who inflict it and those who suffer it; and this feeling is confirmed, on further reflection, by the teachings of history and experience; for flogging, when we give careful thought to it, is see to be the very sum and substance of personal tyranny – the quintessence of all that is opposed to the growth of human freedom. It is an epitome of that love of dominion, mental and physical, which is the mortal foe of intellect; and we find accordingly that the protest against the lash, like the protest against slavery, has grown up, step by step, with the modern enfranchisement of thought.

End quote.

No first world countries employ it.

Dear SteeleRedux,

So flogging is barbaric alright, but what do you suggest in its place?

The fact is that imprisonment, including being thrown into the company of hardened criminals, is even more barbaric and more horrific than any physical pain or the temporary humiliation that goes with it, thus if I ever have the misfortune of being sentenced to jail (including for a crime I have not committed, or for acting according to my conscience against the law), I rather have that sentence converted into corporal punishment.

Hasbeen, as someone who grew up in an isolated hamlet, population 37, at the back of beyond, where the only crime was the occasional renegade cow wandering down main street. I can fully understand how you would have no comprehension of crime in the big city, back in your boyhood days. That is not to say. while you were contented in the serenity of country life serious crime was not afoot down there in the big smoke, which was not the place for a wide eyed naive country lad, such as yourself.
During the years of the corrupt Askin Liberal Government, organised crime operated with impunity in Sydney. Illegal gambling, prostitution, drugs, extortion were rife. in the 1960's, did you ever hear of the infamous 'Towcutter Gang', no! Such goings on might not have been the case in rural Sleepyville where you were residing, but in the big cities crime was alive and flourishing. Melbourne had its 'Painters and Dockers' Sydney its 'Colorful Racing Identities'.

A little snippet on the notorious bent copper Roger Rogerson.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Rogerson

Quite right Paul, and spending 40 years in the city myself, before moving to the country, I can certainly see your point.

However, I always think back to our worst mass murder...committed by a country boy in a sleepy little place called Port Arthur.

So I guess one can never really tell who is going to be the next criminal!