The number of strokes given was primarily dependent on the age of the student, and then secondarily dependent on the nature of the offense, and thirdly dependent on whether the boy was a first-time offender or not. There are statistically significant patterns in the data to illustrate these three considerations. Truancy was considered the most serious offense and usually drew the maximum 6 strokes. Therefore, it can be concluded that there was some predisposed thought given to how many strokes would be applied in a given situation. (NB: I didn’t write all this last night, I have redacted this from an original unpublished study I once performed).