Corporal punishment is the deliberate infliction of pain intended to punish a person or change his/her behavior. Historically speaking, most punishment, whether in judicial, domestic, or educational settings, were corporal in basis. A campaign called "Global Initiative To End All Corporal Punishment Of Children" hopes to achieve full prohibition of all corporal punishment of children worldwide. The UN Study on Violence against Children sets a target date of 2009 for universal prohibition, including in the home. School discipline in the West generally avoids physical correction altogether. The United States, where paddling remains legal in several states, is now the only significant exception to this (Canadian corrective force is widely reported as being of a non-corporal nature). In most European countries it was banned at varying points in the 20th century. On the other hand, school corporal punishment, though probably on the decline overall, is lawful and remains in use in various other parts of the world, and is commonplace in some countries in Africa, the Caribbean and Asia, notably in former British territories but also in a few countries that were never under British rule, such as South Korea and (until very recently) Thailand. According to the Global Initiative in 2007, at least 88 countries do not prohibit the use of corporal punishment in schools, and 147 countries do not prohibit it within alternative care settings.

Unofficially, physical punishment in schools also persists in some countries where it is technically illegal, such as in China.

Corporal punishment is still widely used by parents in the home, but as of 2008 it has been legally banned in 24 countries. These bans are mostly of recent date.Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children. The exemption of corporal punishment from criminal assault in Canada stipulates that the assailant must be a teacher or parent (or guardian assuming all the obligations of a parent), that the force must be used "by way of correction" (sober, reasoned uses of force that address the actual behaviour of the child and are designed to restrain, control or express some symbolic disapproval of his or her behaviour), the child must be capable of benefiting from the correction (ie: not under the age of 2, etc), the use of force must also be "reasonable under the circumstances" - ie: it results neither in harm nor in the prospect of bodily harm. Corporal punishment which involves slaps or blows to the head is harmful.

History of corporal punishment

While the early history of corporal punishment is unclear, the practice was certainly present in classical civilizations, being used in Greece, Rome, and Egypt for both judicial and educational discipline. Practices varied greatly, though scourging and beating with sticks were common. Some states gained a reputation for using such punishments cruelly; Sparta, in particular, used frequently as part of a disciplinary regime designed to build willpower and physical strength. Although the Spartan example was unusually extreme, corporal punishment was possibly the most frequent type of punishment. The maximum penalty allowed in the Roman Empire was 39 lashes with a whip, applied to the back and shoulders, or "fasces"(similar to more modern birch rod, though consisting of 8-10 lengths of willow rather than birch), applied to the buttocks. Such punishments would commonly draw blood, and were frequently inflicted in public. In the Roman Empire (which covered most of Europe, Germany excepted, at its height) by Law the maximum penalty was 40 "lashes" or "strokes", though it was common practice to administer 39, to ensure the Law was not broken. Amongst those who suffered this punishment the most notable were perhaps the English Queen Boadicea in c. 55BC, and, according to the Bible, Jesus Christ.