Corporal punishment is forced pain intended to change a person's behaviour or to punish them. Historically speaking, most punishments, whether in judicial, domestic, or educational settings, were corporal in basis.
In modern world, corporal punishment has been largely rejected in favor of other disciplinary methods. Modern judiciaries often favor fines or incarceration, whilst modern school discipline generally avoids physical correction altogether. Although corporal punishment is still used in many domestic settings, it has been banned in over seventeen countries. Corporal Punishment in Canada is restricted to children under the age of 13, and only by parents or guardians, and only such punishment that does not leave marks.
There has been much dispute in recent years over where the line should be drawn between corporal punishment and torture, or whether a line should indeed be drawn at all.