Whipping as a criminal punishment

Research Brief 21 For decades, if not longer, well-meaning parents (and perhaps less well-meaning authority figures in institutional settings) utilised the cane or the belt as an instrument of punishment. These methods are increasingly frowned upon. Corporal punishment has been criminalised in some countries for more than thirty years, and in recent years, Australian courts […]

No mercy for a would-be assassin

Research Brief 6 ‘In the end’, says Australia’s Prime Minister appealing to the Indonesian government for clemency for Australian drug smugglers facing a firing squad, ‘mercy has to be a part of every justice system’. The sentiment is noble. Mercy has been a prerogative of sovereigns and of the democratic governments that have succeeded […]