Before the age of large, modern prisons, local communities would often punish minor and petty criminals by public humiliation. This involved a variety of methods, most often placing a criminal in the center of town and having the local populace enact a form of "mob justice" on the individual. The punishment of public humiliation could range from anything to an offender simply stating in a loud voice what crime they had committed, wearing a sign that indicated the same, or in the more extreme cases being subjected to physical abuse from the public.

Historic Recreation of Pillory-Stocks Display

In Colonial America, a popular form of public humiliation were the stocks and pillory. Nearly every sizable town had such instruments of public humiliation, usually at the town square. Historic public humiliation displays can still be seen in the historic Virginia town of Colonial Williamsburg.

In the modern age, public humiliation punishment has died out, most importantly since it is outlawed by the United States Constitution since public humiliation is today considered cruel and unusual. Public humiliation does survive, however, in the private world of sexual fantasy, usually involving people who consider humiliation as a sexual fetish. It may be as an act involving BDSM type of control.