Pillory – this term is used in the ancient Criminal Law, where it detailed a medieval punishment and restraining device made of moveable and adjustable wooden boards to which a prisoner’s head or limbs were pinned. Pillories were often placed in a city’s main square where local criminals were exhibited. Citizens were granted permission to throw things at the prisoners. As such, this method of punishment was not just humiliating but often led to serious injury or death. For the government, this was a public statement serving to warn others of the consequences of crime. England abolished the pillory as a form of punishment in 1837.