Notes & Queries: Did the pillory deter criminals in the middle ages?

Is there any evidence that the medieval practice of putting wrongdoers in the stocks and throwing rotten food at them actually worked as a deterrent to crime?

Putting people in the pillory (the stocks only bound the feet, the pillory the head and arms), a practice that continued into at least the late 18th century, far from being a soft option, was a way of allowing the public to pass judgment – and sentence – on the transgressor. If the crime was not seen as a serious one the person might have only soft vegetable matter thrown at them, but if the mob wanted to they could, and often did, throw stones and bricks, seriously injuring or killing the unfortunate captive. In The Reverse of the Medal, by that most meticulous of historical novelists Patrick O'Brian, Jack Aubrey is pilloried but escapes serious injury when his shipmates turn up to stand guard around him. Any one reading this account would have no doubt that the pillory was something to be avoided at all costs.

John French, Chepstow

Is there any evidence that any deterrent/punishment worked as prevention to a crime? I think it would be very hard to get reliable data for crimes not committed.

suebian

Judicial punishment has four main points: retribution (you hurt us so we're going to hurt you back), security (while we're hurting you we're safe), rehabilitation (being hurt may stop you doing it again) and deterrence (hurting you may put others off). The stocks would mainly satisfy the first, have limited success with the second, less still with the third and the fourth is debatable. But human nature being what it is, for most people, the first, retribution, is as far as they care to think.

GentDirly

If we were to build a massive dam across the Strait of Gibraltar, would the Mediterranean dry up, or flood?

The Mediterranean is the remainder of the Tethys Sea, which existed between the Indian and Atlantic oceans between 20m and 14m years ago. As Africa pushed north, the Mediterranean was (and still is) compressed (the Alps were also created by this process). Today's Mediterranean was, between roughly 6m and 4.5m years ago, a vast salt lake. Tectonic movements caused the isolated body of water to become increasingly saline, before evaporation caused near total drying out.

Africa continues to move north (the Mediterranean will, in time, disappear as Africa "crunches" into Europe). So a dam or another tetonic uplift related to closure across the strait of Gibraltar would cause a return of the salt lake (even the input of the mighty Nile could not compensate for evaporation).

The Atlantic bursting through the strait after a 1.5m year absence must have been a mightily impressive spectacle.

Paul Hancock, Ullapool, Wester Ross 

What do couples who have been together a long time talk about when they go on holiday together?

They talk about the long time they've been together. Of course!

Emlvee

Where to have lunch, followed by where to have dinner.

f0stgameplayer

After 27 years of marriage, my husband and I will discuss anything from the appropriate tempi for the symphonic andantes of Mozart and Haydn to the state of the dog's bowels. We also spend quite a lot of time not talking at all, out of content, not discomfiture: as Graves would put it, we "crown our love with wreaths of myrtle".

LadyEff

Did the Lone Ranger always wear a mask? How would we know the Lone Ranger didn't take his mask off when no one else was around?

Robert Jackson, Dartington, Devon

I'm not sure why the Lone Ranger and William Tell share the same theme tune (N&Q, 4 Oct), but as a child I was told that a sign of musical maturity was listening to the William Tell overture without shouting "Hi ho, Silver!"

Mur Cove, Millom, Cumbria

Any answers?

My father, who died 12 years ago, was a strong trade unionist and an active member of the Communist party for 50 years.Would MI5 have kept a file on him? If so, could I see it?

Evelyn Mintrim, London NW2

What advantages do trams have over buses?

Dennis Hawkins, Leominster

Why do so many female Christian names end in "a"?

John Gavan, Berkhamsted