This book outlines changing ideas of law and punishment, from the ancient Babylonian code of Hammurabi, through Islamic Sharia law to modern notions of rehabilitation and the continued practice of corporal and capital punishment.

Discover strange and terrible methods of punishment, including the pillory; flogging; branding; hanging, drawing, and quartering; the guillotine; the bastinado; death of a thousand cuts; the scavenger's daughter; crucifixion; lethal injection; and the electric chair.