Types of Punishment - Physical Punishment
Most forms of physical punishment (stocks, pillory) had died out by this time and were seen as barbaric. However, the authorities still considered whipping to be a just and humane punishment.
Over the course of the 18th and early 19th centuries, the proportion of whippings carried out in public declined, but the number of whippings in private increased, as the use of other forms of punishment, such as hanging, were restricted.
The public whipping of women was abolished in 1817 and men in the 1830s. However, as part of a gaol sentence, Juveniles, in particular, could be ordered to be whipped once or twice in private, in the goal, prior to their release. Private whipping was not discontinued until 1948, over a decade after Victoria came to the throne.
Picture Gallery
