Glasgow Herald, 20 April 1994
Whip hand of the state
George Hume reports on how delinquent young Scots once ran the risk of the rod
In Scotland today are hundreds of men with vivid recall of the day, as boys, that they fell foul of the law and were punished, in a more than usually literal sense, by the strong arm of the law. They will bear the scars yet, thin white lines on the flesh of their buttocks [in fact I know of no evidence that the marks from that kind of birching were normally permanent – C.F.], that were put there with a birch rod when they were aged no more than eight to 16.
Scottish Approved School Punishment6
