The Aristocratic Punishment Office

In Molonia the APO has offices in every cantonal town, these report to the Director of Female Behaviour and are largely staffed by female Punishment Officers - their fierce reputation no less than it was 90 years ago when they were first employed! Usually 15 per Canton. Also, in our capital there is a Central APO Facility for the special education of girls who are repeat offenders. All aristocratic women, between the ages of 18 and 35, married or not can still be punished by the APO, although the actual offences and punishments are much more regulated now.

The APO was created in 1806 when the His Imperial Excellency the King was not happy seeing a Grand Duke get all hot and sweaty while whipping his daughter one summer - this was thought of as unseemly for an aristocrat! So, within a few months, the task of punishing wayward aristocratic women was given to a specialist corp reporting to the Royal Molonian Ministry for Female Oversight.

As soon as it was formed members of the aristocracy could write to its Punishment Officers (none of whom were aristocratic) requesting a daughter be beaten for her misbehaviour - at that time this could include anything from simply answering back to fornication outside marriage. Once agreed upon, the girl would be taken to the Cantonal prison where, in a private courtyard, she would be tied over a wooden horse and flogged on her naked bottom with a heavy leather strap. Although out of the public gaze the punishment would be attended by her father and two other witnesses and, in many towns, her screams could easily be heard outside the prison walls!

Soon, APO offices were created in government buildings and punishments were carried out in these. The Punishment Officers would always have several girls in their office at the same time; the more to hear and see each others pain!

Offices continued to be used for caning until the 1930's when it was decided, to coincide with the formation of the Harem Detention Service, that specialist punishment rooms could be constructed and used for the far stricter discipline needed on the wayward women of the time; many a poor aristocratic daughter would be painfully paddled on her naked bottom, chained to the tiled walls of these cold underground chambers. It was in 1931 that the first Female Punishment Officers were employed by the APO and they were often far more cruel than their male colleagues, taking great pleasure in hurting these women who were so much more privileged than themselves. Today, the APO employs more women than men as Punishment Officers for that very reason!

A girls punishment would always be held in private unless she was a repeat offender of the same intransigence and an embarrassment to her family, in which case she might be flogged in public in the stocks - a spectacle very much enjoyed in every Molonian town!

In fact, our government, aware of how popular it is throughout the country to see these aristocratic women flogged changed the law last year and decreed that all APO punishment should be carried out in public - because it is such an enjoyable spectacle for the common people!

Sentencing is the same throughout the country, and carried out with a whip, a cane or the traditional "impact" instrument of the particular canton. The table of sentences is a simple one:

• –Insulting Their Majesties' Court and Government – 30 strokes
• –Refusal of sexual acts to Husband – 25 strokes
• –Requested discipline by Husband for her poor behaviour at home – 15 strokes
• –Deportment offences (poor behaviour in public) – 20 strokes
• –Entitlement Offences (insulting behaviour to her commoners) – 25 strokes
• –Familial Offences (insulting parents/older siblings) - 20 strokes
• –Carriage offences (driving) – 25 strokes
• –Requested discipline by Father – 15 strokes
• –Requested discipline by Mother – 10 strokes
• –Societal offences (indiscrete clothing) – 15 strokes
• –Sporting offences (poor sportsmanship in events) – 10 strokes
• –Education offences (poor behaviour/results at college) – 10 strokes

For a second offence (in 12 months) she will get twice as many strokes, for a third offence three times as many and for a fourth offence she will be sent to the the Central APO facility for four weeks. There she is put in a metal collar, has her ID number written on her bottom and is sent to clean floors and vehicles, naked, every day in a State factory.

After all that, if she still offends she may be sentenced with the commoners to serve and work naked on a Correction Farm for up to 6 months!

If a family wants to preserve a girls dignity a "Court Arrangement" can be made for a punishment to be administered with more privacy. If family, councillors and some public witnesses are agreed upon she will have twice as many strokes as the original sentence.

If it is administered in total privacy (with a maximum of three family witnesses) then she will receive three times the number, possibly over several days for harsher and repeat sentences - many a poor aristocratic daughter lives to regret this as she is lashed again and again by a whip wielding Punishment Officer in the dark basement under a Cantonal Court building!

Although, traditionally, the whipping is carried out on a girls bottom, if, in the case of carrying out many strokes over several days it's thought that her bottom cannot take any more then she may well be flogged on her breasts instead - in which case, since we are not a terrible nation - the number is reduced by half. Thus, many a well-flogged girl is relieved to be told her remaining sentence will be carried out "frontally"!

It is a very popular career for women in our country, and those who wish to work as Punishment Officers can only qualify if they themselves undergo five sessions of flogging with the various approved instruments; this has proved to be very successful as it means they understand exactly how to carry out punishment! Thus they themselves will experience the bullwhip, leather strap, rattan cane, wooden paddle and birch all administered by the Senior Punishment Officers who will train them.

After all this it is little wonder that these women excel at their jobs and are very skilled at flogging our misbehaving aristocratic women, especially in public!