Caning
A more moderate variation, where the caning is aimed at the soles of a culprit's bare feet is used as prison punishment in several countries of the world.
[12] The frequency and severity of caning in educational settings have varied greatly, often being determined by the written rules or unwritten traditions of the school.
It gradually replaced birching—effective only if applied to the bare bottom—with a form of punishment more suited to contemporary sensibilities, once it had been discovered that a flexible rattan cane can provide the offender with a substantial degree of pain even when delivered through a layer of clothing.
[27][28] Students (both male and female) can even be caned publicly for minor mistakes like lateness, poor grades, being unable to answer questions correctly or forgetting to bring a textbook.
Historically, in many state and private schools in England, Scotland and Wales, the rattan cane was regularly used across the hands, legs, or buttocks of both boys and girls.
The cane was generally administered in a formal ceremony in public/private to the seat of the trousers or skirt, typically with the student either bending over a desk/chair or touching their toes.
Such a caning would typically leave the offender with uncomfortable weals and bruises lasting for many days after the immediate intense pain had worn off.
In the early 20th century, permission for prefects to cane younger students (mainly secondary-age boys) was also widespread in British public schools.
Some private preparatory schools relied heavily on "self-government" by prefects for even their youngest pupils (around eight years old), with caning the standard punishment for even minor offences.
[41] The perceived advantages of this were to avoid bothering the teaching staff with minor disciplinary matters, promptness of punishment, and more effective chastisement, as the impact would be better known in the culprit's immediate peer group.
[42] Canings from prefects took place for a wide variety of failings, including lack of enthusiasm in sport, or to enforce youngsters' participation in character-building aspects of public school life, such as compulsory cold baths in winter.
[43][44] Roald Dahl gives an account of this practice in his memoir Boy (autobiography) from his time in Repton School where prefects were referred to as "Boazers" and their underling students as "fags".
[47] As early as the 1920s, the tradition of prefects at British public schools repeatedly caning new boys for trivial offences was criticised by psychologists as producing "a high state of nervous excitement" in some of the youngsters subjected to it.
It was felt that granting untrained and unsupervised older adolescents the power to impose comprehensive thrashings on their younger schoolmates whenever they chose might have adverse psychological effects.
Like their British counterparts, South African private schools also gave prefects free rein to administer canings whenever they felt it appropriate, from at least the late 19th century onwards.
[49] South African schools continued to use the cane to emphasise sporting priorities well into the late 20th century, caning boys for commonplace gameplay errors such as being caught offside in an association football match, as well as for poor batting performance in cricket, not applauding their school team's performance sufficiently, missing sport practice sessions, or even "to build up team spirit".
In particular, boys who absconded were typically given a maximum caning of 8 strokes on the clothed bottom immediately on return to the school, and a 1971 statistical study found that this could be an effective deterrent.
Caning with a heavy judicial rattan as used in Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei can leave scars for years if a large number of strokes are inflicted.
Most ordinary canings with a typical light rattan (used at home or at school for punishing students), although painful at the time, leave only reddish welts or bruises lasting a few days.
