Feeling physical pain does make people avoid the situations that cause them. However, they are most effective when the physical pain happens very soon after and

Feeling physical pain does make people avoid the situations that cause them. However, they are most effective when the physical pain happens very soon after and it happens consistently. Eg touching a hot stove. You get hurt immediately and every time. This teaches you very quickly not to do that. This makes physical pain not be as effective as a legal punishment through courts though. Courts take a long time to figure out guilt and they aren't always consistent. Being arrested fits far more into that category than anything the courts decide. The other problem with using corporal punishment is that it's very easy to overdo it. It's also very easy to not do enough.