Right: Corporal punishment was carried out routinely in schools until fairly recently. Children are still physically disciplined at home. However, it has been pointed out that corporal punishment for criminals, even hardened offenders, has been banned in most Western prisons for decades.
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Arguments against parents using corporal punishment on their children
1. Corporal punishment does not assist children to regulate their behaviour internally
It has been claimed that children do not develop the ability to make rational judgements about their behaviour if their parents regularly use corporal punishment to discipline them.
According to this line of argument, physical discipline trains children to avoid short-term punishment, but it does not encourage them to develop a rational understanding of why one form of behaviour is preferable to another.
It is claimed that without such an awareness of the morality of their actions children are less likely to develop true self-control which enables them to regulate their own behaviour because they recognise its consequences for themselves and others.
In 2002, Columbia University published a research overview conducted by Elizabeth Thompson Gershoff. Gershoff stated, 'Children's internalisation of morals is thought to be enhanced by parental discipline strategies that use minimal parental power, promote choice and autonomy, and provide explanations for desirable behaviours.'
Similarly it is claimed that physical punishment may lead to children developing criminal behaviour in later life. This possibility was also suggested by Elizabeth Gershoff's research review. Gershoff states, 'Longitudinal studies [have indicated] that the extent to which parents were aggressively punitive predicted their children's criminal behaviour as adults.' It has been suggested that this criminal behaviour resulted from the children's early failure to internalise a sense of the morality of their own behaviour.
2. Physically punishing children can trigger violent anti-social behaviour in later life
It has been claimed that physically punishing children teaches them that the use of violence is an appropriate response to difficulties. Such a belief may encourage children to employ violence themselves in their later lives.
A longitudinal study of 442 boys born in 1972, found that one out of every three boys who was maltreated during childhood exhibited anti-social or criminal behaviour as an adult. Maltreatment was defined as including physical abuse.
This led the researchers to speculate if the violence associated with conventional levels of corporal punishment could also trigger violent or aggressive behaviour later in life.
Philip Greven, the author of 'Spare the Child: The Religious Roots of Punishment and the Psychological Impact of Physical Abuse' has stated, 'Corporal punishments always figure prominently in the roots of adolescent and adult aggressiveness, especially in those manifestations that take antisocial form, such as delinquency and criminality.
Assaults upon children by adults in the name of discipline are the primary familial models for aggression, assaults, and other forms of antisocial behaviour, delinquency, and crime that emerge when children grow up.'
3. A moderate, firm but fair approach is the most effective form of parenting
Most child care authorities argue that while children need discipline for their own safety and to ensure their effective development and psychological well-being, physical punishment should not be among the strategies that parents use.
Jodie Benveniste, of parentwellbeing.com.au, has claimed that discipline does not require smacking, intimidation or bullying to be effective.
Ms Benveniste has stated, 'Research has shown that authoritative parents who are harsh, punitive and emotionally cold tend to raise kids who are unhappy, dependent and submissive.
And it doesn't help to be too permissive either because parents who don't discipline tend to raise kids who are immature, impatient and sometimes aggressive.'
Ms Benveniste and many other child care authorities promote the middle ground in authoritative parenting, which 'involves being warm and responsive, setting boundaries and being consistent.'
4. Many parents do not administer corporal punishment in a calm and moderate manner
It has been claimed that many parents do not employ corporal punishment in a calm and controlled manner. Instead they use it when both they and often their children are out of control. This can lead to an excessive use of force which may result in physical harm being inflicted upon the child.
Because spanking works for a while, parents often repeat the spanking whenever the child misbehaves. Corporal punishment may then become a standard response to any misbehaviour. This can lead to increasingly frequent and harsher spanking which can exceed the 'reasonable force' threshold and become abuse.
According to the Canadian Institute for the Prevention of Child Abuse, '85% of all cases of physical abuse results from some form of over-discipline through the use of corporal punishment.' Each year about 44 Canadian children are known to have been killed by family members; 35 of them by parents. The figures for the United States are estimated to be about 10 times higher.
Physical punishment can easily move outside the parent's control and cause serious injury to a child. Boxing on the ear can burst an eardrum. Shaking can cause a concussion, whiplash, blindness, serious brain damage, or even death. Spanking can injure muscles, the sciatic nerve, pelvis, coccyx (tail bone), genitals or spine. Hitting a child's hands can injure bones, blood vessels, joints and ligaments; it can induce premature osteoarthritis. It is also possible that a child who is hit can accidentally fall and seriously injure themselves.
5. Physical punishment violates the rights of children and treats them prejudicially to any other group in society
Opponents of employing corporal punishment against children argue that all people have a right to feel physically safe and to be legally protected against any form of assault.
It is claimed that allowing parents to punish their children physically puts children in a special group not occupied by any other member of society. It is further argued that children are now protected against the physical punishment that used to be used against them within schools.
Therefore, critics question why, if adults are protected from all forms of assault and if schools cannot legally hit children, it should be possible to use physical force against their children.
Writing of the United States in 1987, Dr Adah Maurer and James S. Wallerstein, noted, 'Physical punishment is considered too severe for felons, murderers, criminals of all kinds and ages, including juvenile delinquents, too demeaning for soldiers, sailors, servants and spouses. But it remains legal and acceptable for children who are innocent of any crime.'
The rights of children with regard to physical punishment have been clearly stated in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Convention states, 'States Parties shall take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and education measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse, while in the care of parent(s), legal guardian(s) or any other person who has the care of the child.'