I spent years of my own schooling in a school where quite severe – at times, I would say, brutal – corporal punishment was available. Did I live in constant fear of it? No, I didn’t. The only times I was afraid of getting caned were times when I’d done something to deserve it. 99% of the time, I hadn’t done anything to deserve it and so I didn’t fear it in the least. And even when I had done something to deserve it, if I was caught and punished, the fear went away as soon as I was punished. And I am pretty sure the vast majority of my fellows felt the same.
We had a system that was, basically, fair. It wasn’t perfect – but miscarriages of justice were rare, and nobody lived in constant fear. They behaved, and when they didn’t behave they would be afraid until they were caught, or until they became confident they’d got away with it. Either way their behaviour normally improved as a result and they became less likely to get themselves into that situation again.