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Birching is a corporal punishment with a birch rod, typically applied to the recipient's bare buttocks, although occasionally to the back and/or shoulders. Corporal punishment is the deliberate infliction of pain intended to Punish a person or change his/her behavior Birch is the name of any Tree of the genus Betula ( Bé-tu-la) in the family Betulaceae, closely related to the

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Implement

A birch rod (often shortened to "birch") is a bundle of leafless twigs bound together to form an implement for flagellation. Flagellation is the act of whipping (Latin flagellum, "whip" the human body

Contrary to what the name suggests, a birch rod is not a single rod and is not necessarily made from a birch tree, but can also be made from various other strong but flexible trees or shrubs, such as willow. Birch is the name of any Tree of the genus Betula ( Bé-tu-la) in the family Betulaceae, closely related to the A hazel rod is very tough, and therefore particularly painful; a bundle of four or five hazel twigs was used in the 1960s on the Isle of Man, the last place in Europe to use birching as a judicial penalty. The Isle of Man (Ellan Vannin ˈɛlʲən ˈvanɪn or Mann (Mannin) is a self-governing Crown dependency, located in the Irish Sea at the geographical

Another parameter for the severity of a birch rod is its size - i. e. its length, weight and number of branches. In some penal institutions, several versions were in use, which were often given names. For example, in Dartmoor Prison the device used to punish male offenders above the age of 16 - weighing some 16 ounces and a full 48 inches long - was known as the senior birch. HM Prison Dartmoor is located in Princetown, high on Dartmoor in the English County of Devon.

There have been differing opinions as to the utility of soaking the birch in liquid before use, but as it takes in water the weight is certainly increased without compensatory air resistance, so the impact must be greater if the operator can use sufficient force.

In the 1860s, the Royal Navy abandoned the use of the cat o' nine tails on boy seamen. The cat o' nine tails, commonly shortened to 'the cat' is a type of multi-tailed whipping device that originated as an implement for severe Physical punishment The cat had acquired a nasty reputation because of its frequent use in prisons, and was replaced by the birch, with which the wealthy classes were more familiar, having been chastised with it during their schooling. The judicial system followed the Navy's example and switched to birches also. In an attempt to standardise the Navy's birches the Admiralty had specimens according to all prevailing prescriptions, called patterned birch (as well as a patterned cane), kept in every major dockyard, for birches had to be procured on land in quantities, suggesting some were worn out on the sore bottoms of miscreant boys.

The term judicial birch refers to the severe type in use for court-ordered birchings, especially the Manx hazel birch. A 1951 memorandum (possibly confirming earlier practice) ordered all UK male prisons to use only birches (and cats-o'-nine-tails) from a national stock at south London's Wandsworth prison, where they were to be 'thoroughly' tested before being supplied in triplicate to a prison whenever required for use as prison discipline. HM Prison Wandsworth Gaol is a Prison in the Wandsworth area of London, England [1]

By contrast, terms like "Eton birch" are used for a birch made from birch tree twigs. Eton College, or just Eton, is a world-famous British Independent school for boys founded in 1440 by King Henry VI.

Position

Medieval schoolboy birched on the bare buttocks
Medieval schoolboy birched on the bare buttocks

The recipient, if small enough, can go over the spanker's lap or knee but would often be bent over an object (as in the expression 'over a barrel') to raise the buttocks, and even tied down if likely otherwise to move about too much.

In some prisons a wooden apparatus known as birching donkey or birching pony, referring to the silhouette of an equid, was specially constructed for birchings. As there were no detailed rules, prisons and police stations over the empire devised, adapted and used many different contraptions under various names that juvenile and adult offenders were bent over to have their bare buttocks professionally lashed; some models also allowed a standing or leaning position for other implements.

A simple alternative position known from school discipline is horsing, where the person to be punished is held by the arms over the back of another person (e. g. a classmate), or on the shoulders of two or more colleagues.

A particularly ingenious device was a flogging table with two holes in it through which the offender's arms were inserted but otherwise left free and untied. When the offender's feet were tied into position and a strap fastened immediately above the waist, the offender would be immobilized but, having free (but useless) movement of hands and arms, would thrash about in the upper body in futile attempts at escape. This imparted a particular sense of helplessness to the offender as correction was applied.

If the offender's legs were held apart, the inner thighs would be vulnerable. The back of the scrotum would also be vulnerable if – as in most cases – the offender was male. Careful arrangements were made to avoid this, by keeping the offender's legs close together, when the birch was used in British prisons.

History

Edmund Bonner punishing a heretic in Foxe's Book of Martyrs (1563)
Edmund Bonner punishing a heretic in Foxe's Book of Martyrs (1563)

It was the most common school, home and judicial punishment in Europe up to the 19th century, when caning gained increasing popularity. Edmund Bonner (also Edmund Boner) (c 1500 &ndash September 5, 1569) Bishop of London, was an English Bishop. The Book of Martyrs, by John Foxe, is an Apocalyptically oriented English Protestant account of the Persecutions of Punishment is the practice of imposing something unpleasant or aversive on a person or animal usually in response to disobedient or morally wrong behavior The 19th century of the Common Era began on January 1, 1801 and ended on December 31, 1900, according to the Gregorian calendar Caning is a Physical punishment (see that article for generalities and alternatives consisting of a number of hits (known as "strokes" or "cuts" with According to some accounts, even the legendary sting of the cat o' nine tails was less feared than the birch in certain prisons. The cat o' nine tails, commonly shortened to 'the cat' is a type of multi-tailed whipping device that originated as an implement for severe Physical punishment The birch was always applied to the bare buttocks (as also on the continent), a humiliation usually befalling boys (like the boy's cat, likewise on the naked posterior), the 'adult' cat to the back or shoulders of adults -- although in the 20th century judges increasingly ordered the birch rather than the cat, even for robbery with violence (the only offence for which adult judicial corporal punishment was ordered in the latter decades of its use in mainland Britain). The cat o' nine tails, commonly shortened to 'the cat' is a type of multi-tailed whipping device that originated as an implement for severe Physical punishment

Corporal punishment as whipping was especially popular in French Revolution. For example one of leaders of revolution Anne Josephe Theroigne de Mericourt went mad, ending her days in an asylum after public birching. Anne-Josèphe Théroigne de Méricourt (born Anne-Josèphe Terwagne; August 13, 1762 &ndash1817 a French woman who was a striking On the 31 May 1793 the Jacobin women seized her, stripped her naked, and flogged her on bare bottom in the public garden of the Tuileries. The Palais des Tuileries was a royal Palace in Paris. It stood on the right bank of the River Seine until 1871, when it was destroyed After humilation shameless and bloodthirsty in delirium she started to live naked - refused to wear any garments, in memory of the outrage she had suffered. [1]

Judicial birching in the 20th century was used much more often as a fairly minor punishment for young boys, typically for petty larceny, than as a serious penalty for adult men. In this juvenile version, the birch was much lighter and smaller, and the birch was administered by the police, usually immediately after the magistrate's court hearing, either in a room in the court building or at the nearest police station.

In the United States, the paddle and whip-type implements including the prison strap have been more prominent. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the For other uses see Paddle (disambiguation spanking paddle is a usually wooden instrument with a long flat face and narrow neck so called because Serine/threonine kinase receptor associated protein, also known as STRAP, is a human Gene.

Today birching is rarely used for judicial punishment, and has also almost completely died out as a punishment for children. In Britain birching as a judicial penalty, in both its juvenile and adult versions, was abolished in 1948, although it was retained until 1962 as a punishment for very violent breaches of prison discipline. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located The Isle of Man (a small island between Britain and Ireland with its own legal system as a British Crown dependency) caused a good deal of controversy by continuing to birch young offenders until 1976. The Isle of Man (Ellan Vannin ˈɛlʲən ˈvanɪn or Mann (Mannin) is a self-governing Crown dependency, located in the Irish Sea at the geographical Ireland (pronounced /ˈaɾlənd/ Éire) is the third largest island in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world The Crown Dependencies are possessions of The Crown in Right of the United Kingdom, as opposed to overseas territories or colonies of the United Year 1976 ( MCMLXXVI) was a Leap year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. [2] The birch was also used on offending teenage boys until well into the 1960s on the Channel Islands of Guernsey and Jersey. In the Caribbean Commonwealth republic Trinidad and Tobago the 1953 Corporal Punishment Act allows the High Court to order males, in addition to another punishment (often concurrent with a prison term), to undergo corporal punishment in the form of either a 'flogging' with a knotted cat o' nine tails (made of cords, as in the Royal Navy tradition) or a 'whipping' with a 'rod' [i. The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago (ˈtrɪnɪdæd ən təˈbeɪgoʊ is an archipelagic state in the southern Caribbean, lying northeast of the South American The cat o' nine tails, commonly shortened to 'the cat' is a type of multi-tailed whipping device that originated as an implement for severe Physical punishment e. switch] of tamarind, birch or other switches and allows the President to approve other instruments; in 2000, the original minimum age was raised from 16 to 18, the legal threshold of adulthood; corporal punishment in schools was completely banned, but there is reportedly wide support for a controlled reintroduction as recommended in 2004 by a government-initiated study.

Non-punitive uses

References

  1. ^ Roudinesco, Elisabeth. (1992) Madness and Revolution: The Lives and Legends of Theroigne de Mericourt, Verso. ISBN 0-86091-597-2. p. 198

External links

Dictionary

birching

-verb

  1. Present participle of birch.
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