ABSTRACT
Corporal punishment is widely assumed to be the equivalent of torture since many techniques of torture do inflict pain on the body. However, torture is vastly different from corporal punishment because it aims not so much to inflict pain on the body as to completely overwhelm the individual, to take over both body and mind. There is some confusion between corporal punishment and capital punishment because some methods of putting to death may include the infliction of pain on the offender. The Romans and the Greeks used corporal punishments extensively. The Romans used torture as a matter of course in conducting interrogations, especially of slaves whose testimony as witnesses was never allowed unless obtained under torture. The majority of punishments laid down by Shari'a are corporal punishments. In contrast to Western law, Shari'a has few actual crimes, and probably a greater variety of punishments.
