Public humiliation

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Public humiliation or public shaming is a form of

In the United States, it was a common punishment from the beginning of European colonization through the 19th century. It fell out of common use in the 20th century, though it has seen a revival starting in the 1990s.^[1] With the rise of the social media, public shaming moved to the digital sphere, exposing and humiliating people daily, sometimes without their knowledge. ^[2]

Shameful exposure

Public humiliation exists in many forms. In general, a criminal sentenced to one of many forms of this punishment could expect themselves be placed (restrained) in a central, public, or open location so that their fellow citizens could easily witness the sentence and, in some cases, participate as a form of "

Head shaving can be a humiliating punishment prescribed in law,^[4] but also something done as "mob justice"—a stark example of which was the thousands of European women who had their heads shaved in front of cheering crowds in the wake of World War II,^[5][6] as punishment for associating with occupying Nazis during the war. Public shaving was applied to (true or alleged) collaborators after the Allied liberated occupied territories from the Nazi troops.^[5][6]

Further means of public humiliation and degradation consist in forcing people to wear

Forcing people to go barefoot has been used as a more subtle form of humiliation in past and present cultures. The exposure of bare feet has served as an indicator for imprisonment and slavery throughout ancient and modern history.^[11] Even today prisoners officially have to go barefoot in many countries of the world and are also presented in court and in public unshod.^[12][13]

Corporal punishment

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Apart from specific methods essentially aiming at humiliation, several methods combine pain and humiliation or even death and humiliation. In some cases, the pain—or at least discomfort—is insignificant or rather secondary to the humiliation.^[14][15][16]

Public punishment

The simplest is to administer painful

The humiliation can be extended; intentionally or not; by leaving visible marks, such as

Public shaming can result in negative psychological effects and devastating consequences, regardless of the punishment being justifiable or not. It could cause depression, suicidal thoughts and other severe mental problems. The humiliated individuals may develop a variety of symptoms including

• post-mortem public humiliation. See also gibbeting.^{[citation needed}
  ]
• The punishment of public humiliation has taken many forms, ranging from an offender being forced to relate his crime, to a 'shame flute' (for untalented musicians), to the wearing of conspicuous clothing or jewelry (such as an oversized rosary (Dutch: schandstenen, "stones of shame") for someone late to church). The offender could alternatively be sentenced to remain exposed in a specific exposed place, in a restraining device such as a yoke or public stocks.^{[citation needed]}
• In the
  scaffolding from which one is kicked off to land in mud and dirt.^{[citation needed}
  ]
• In the more extreme cases, being subjected to verbal and physical abuse from the crowd could have serious consequences, especially when the hands were bound, preventing self-protection. Some sentences actually prescribed additional humiliation, such as shaving, or would combine it with painful corporal punishments, see below.^[25]
• In
  adulterers were publicly exposed purely to shame them.^{[citation needed}
  ]
• In Liberia, boy soldiers stripped civilian women to humiliate them; this was described with the verb phrase "to naked someone else."[26]
• In Siam, an adulteress was paraded with a hibiscus behind the ear. Thieves were tattooed on their faces. Other criminals were paraded with a device made of woven cane on the forehead, or lengths of bamboo hung around the neck. Errant Brahmans had to wear a string of oversize beads.^{[citation needed]}
• Send under the yoke was used in ancient Italy.^{[citation needed]}
• Some have considered sex offender registries in the United States to be a form of public humiliation as judicial punishment.^[27][28] A convicted sex offender's placement on the sex offender registry is public via a state run website in all 50 states.^[29][30] In 2018, a judge in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado declared Colorado's sex offender scheme as unconstitutional, citing cruel and unusual punishment.^[31] In 2020, the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit overturned that decision.^[32]

• 
  Man and woman undergoing public exposure for adultery in Japan, circa 1860.
• 
  Flute of Shame displayed at the Torture Museum in Amsterdam.

See also

References