Before the age of large, modern prisons, local communities would often punish minor and petty criminals by public humiliation. This involoved a variety of methods, most often placing a criminal in the center of town and having the local populus enact a form of "mob justice" on the individual. The punishment of public humilation could range from anything to an offender simply stating in a loud voice what crime they had committed, wearing a sign that indicated the same, or in teh more extreme cases being subjected to stoning or other form of crowd abuse from the public.

In Colonial America, a popular form of public humiliation were the stocks and pillory. Nearly every sizable town had such instruments of public humilation, usually at the town square. Original colonial public humilation displays can still be seen in the historic town of Williamsburg, Virginia.

In the modern age, public humilation punishment has died out, most importantly since it is outlawed by the Constitution, for public humilation is today consdered cruel and unusual. Public humilation does survive, however, in the private work of sexual fantasy, usually involving people who consider humiliation as a fetish. It may be as an act involving BDSM type of control.