The Rationale of Punishment

Book II

Of Corporal Punishments

Chapter II

OF COMPLEX AFFLICTIVE PUNISHMENTS.

Under the name of complex afflictive punishments, may be included those corporeal punishments, of which the principal effect consists in the distant and durable consequences of the act of punishment. They cannot be included under one title. They include three species, very different the one from the other in their nature and their importance.

The permanent consequences of an afflictive punishment may consist in the alteration, the destruction, or suspension of the properties of a part of the body.

The properties of a part of the body consist of its visible qualities, as of colour and figure, and its uses.

Of these three distinct kinds of punishments, the first affects the exterior of the person, its visible qualities: the second affects the use of the organic faculties, without destroying the organ itself: the third destroys the organ itself.


[RP, Book II, Chapter I, §2] [RP, Book II, Chapter II, §1]