Public Humiliation - Shameful Exposure

Shameful Exposure

This involved a variety of methods, most often placing a criminal in the center of town and having the local populace enact a form of "mob justice" on the individual. The punishment of public humiliation could be, amongst other things, an offender being forced to relate his crime, such as by exaggerated physical parody: a 'shame flute' for a bad musician or a wearing giant rosary (Dutch: schandstenen, "stones of shame") for someone late to church. The offender could alternatively be sentenced to remain exposed in a specific public place, in a restraining device.

The arsenal in the Low Countries included the schandstoel ("Chair of shame"), the kaak or schandpaal ("pole of shame", a simple type of pillory), the draaikooi, customary for adulteresses, and the schopstoel, a scaffolding which one is kicked off to land in mud and dirt).

In the more extreme cases being subjected to verbal and physical abuse from the crowd, which could have serious consequences especially when the hands are not free to protect himself. Some sentences actually prescribe additional humiliation, such as shaving, or combine it with painful corporal punishments, see below.

In Colonial America, common forms of public humiliation were the stocks and pillory, imported from Europe. Nearly every sizable town had such instruments of public humiliation, usually at the town square. Historic public humiliation displays can still be seen in the historic Virginia town of Colonial Williamsburg.

In pre–World War Japan, adulterers were publicly exposed purely to shame them.

In post-Colonial times, judicial use of public humiliation punishment has largely fallen out of favor since the practice is now considered cruel and unusual punishment, which is outlawed in the United States Constitution.

Just like painful forms of corporal punishment, it has parallels in educational and other rather private punishments (but with some audience), in school or domestic disciplinary context, and as a rite of passage. Physical forms include being forced to wear some sign such as donkey ears (simulated in paper, as a sign one is—or at least behaved—proverbially stupid), wearing a Dunce cap, having to stand, kneel or bend over in a corner, or repeatedly write something on a blackboard ("I will not spread rumors", for example). Here too physical discomfort or even pain can be added, such as having to hold heavy objects or kneeling on an uneven surface. Like physical punishment and harsh hazing, these have become controversial in most modern societies, in many cases leading to legal restrictions and/or (sometimes voluntary) abolishment.

Having the head shaved can be a humiliating punishment prescribed in law, 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, as punishment for associating with occupying Nazis during the war.

It is not unheard of for enlisted soldiers in the U.S. Army caught speeding on base to be made to stand by roads holding anti-speeding signs.

Public humiliation is still practised a lot in the present time, not as a legal punishment, but more informally by the press and media.