Stiletto for ranging distance. The stiletto was later adopted throughout Italy as the favored offensive thrusting knife ("arma manesca") of the medieval assassin,<ref name="ATK"/ so much so that it was invariably prohibited as a treacherous weapon ("arma insidiosa") by the authorities of the day. The stiletto was preferred by assassins as it was silent, easily concealed inside a sleeve or jacket, and featured a blade capable of easily penetrating the heavy leather and fabric clothing of the day, while inflicting mortal wounds that tended to bleed less than those made by other types of knives. In Italy, the stiletto began to
High heel policy advent of the stiletto heel fashion." When stiletto heels were first sold in Africa, many of the wearers fell through the floors of their homes, not realizing that the floor timbers had been partly removed by termites. The U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service claimed in 1963 that "with style changes the stiletto-heel problem has diminished". High heels can represent contributory negligence by the plaintiff in American personal injury cases involving slip and fall accidents. Many high heel policies in the US are related to concerns over the potential for legal claims. Some women have challenged the expectation that women