Corporal Punishment Is It Effective

The aim of this book is to assess the moral permissibility of corporal punishment and to enquire into whether or not it ought to be legally prohibited. Against the widespread view that corporal punishment is morally legitimate and should be legally permitted provided it falls short of abuse, Patrick Lenta argues that all corporal punishment, even parental spanking, is morally impermissible and ought to be legally proscribed. The advantages claimed for corporal punishment over alternative disciplinary techniques, he contends, are slight or speculative and are far outweighed by its disadvantages. He presents, in addition, a rights-based case against corporal punishment, arguing that children possess certain fundamental rights that all corporal punishment of them violates, namely the right to security of the person and the right not to be subjected to degrading punishment. Lenta’s approach is unique in that it engages with empirical literature in the social sciences in order to fully examine the emotional and psychological effects of corporal punishment on children. Corporal Punishment: A Philosophical Assessment is a philosophically rigorous and engaging treatment of a hitherto neglected topic in applied ethics and social philosophy.

The use of Corporal Punishment, CP, in behaviour modification is a complex social science filled with unproven theories and opinions. This broad study encompasses 18,000 enrollments from 13 diverse institutional environments, of which 4,500 minors received CP, and provides actual empirical proof for questions like: (1) How does CP relate to the three group-types of individuals? (2) Is CP effective, and to what degree is it effective? (3) For what offence types is CP more or less effective? (4) Does CP create bullies or does it deter them? (5) How does CP compare to suspensions? (6) How does CP compare to confinements? (7) Does applying CP with greater intensity increase effectiveness? (8) Are repeat offenders punished with greater intensity? (9) Is CP more or less effective for various age groups? (10) Was there sexual discrimination in applying SCP? (11) To what degree is peer pressure a factor at school? (12) Is there seasonality in misbehaviour at school? (13) Are there ways to detect abuse in applying sanctions at school?The findings speak directly to the optimization of CP deployment in the public schools of 19 US States where CP is practiced today. However, they also speak to school environments where CP-alternatives such as suspensions are used.Further, this work does NOT advocate parents to spank. However, the Canadian "spanking defence" laws are also examined against these findings, and suggest these guidelines are the most empirically correct and optimally balanced that exist on the planet today. An unexpected side benefit is that clear answers are provided to various erroneous claims swirling around this issue.

This Brief reviews the past, present, and future use of school corporal punishment in the United States, a practice that remains legal in 19 states as it is constitutionally permitted according to the U.S. Supreme Court. As a result of school corporal punishment, nearly 200,000 children are paddled in schools each year. Most Americans are unaware of this fact or the physical injuries sustained by countless school children who are hit with objects by school personnel in the name of discipline. Therefore, Corporal Punishment in U.S. Public Schools begins by summarizing the legal basis for school corporal punishment and trends in Americans’ attitudes about it. It then presents trends in the use of school corporal punishment in the United States over time to establish its past and current prevalence. It then discusses what is known about the effects of school corporal punishment on children, though with so little research on this topic, much of the relevant literature is focused on parents’ use of corporal punishment with their children. It also provides results from a policy analysis that examines the effect of state-level school corporal punishment bans on trends in juvenile crime. It concludes by discussing potential legal, policy, and advocacy avenues for abolition of school corporal punishment at the state and federal levels as well as summarizing how school corporal punishment is being used and what its potential implications are for thousands of individual students and for the society at large. As school corporal punishment becomes more and more regulated at the state level, Corporal Punishment in U.S. Public Schools serves an essential guide for policymakers and advocates across the country as well as for researchers, scientist-practitioners, and graduate students.

The author suggests that spanking children is a form of violence and that such treatment not only adversely affects the children who experience it, but society as a whole.

By using positive methods of discipline parents have the opportunity to provide their children with an optimal home environment for healthy emotional growth and development.

The core of this book is a detailed analysis of the status of corporal punishment of children, including Areasonable spankings by parents, under international human rights law. The analysis leads compellingly to the conclusion that such punishment is indeed a human rights violation, consonant with modern norms about right and decent treatment of juveniles. The book further provides a comparative analysis between the domestic laws of the seventeen nations that ban all corporal punishment of children (Sweden, Finland, Norway, Austria, Cyprus, Denmark, Germany, Iceland, Bulgaria, Croatia, Latvia, Hungary, Romania, Ukraine, Israel, Italy, and Portugal) and examples of the domestic laws in the countries that still permit some physical chastisement of children (United States and Canada). Because it is anticipated that a good number of readers will be surprised to learn that this disciplinary practice has become a human rights law violation, the book also engages in an in-depth exegesis of the psychological evidence and historical and philosophical reasons warranting prohibition of all corporal punishment of children as an imperative policy choice. The work probes as well why, once that choice is made, it is essential to use legal bans on the punishment inasmuch as they have uniquely effective pedagogical and therapeutic roles and give some permanence to humanity’s hard won understanding about protecting the young from violence. Published under the Transnational Publishers imprint.

Based on his studies of over 9,000 families, Murray A. Straus, the foremost researcher on family violence in the world, discusses the extent to which parents in the United States use corporal punishment (such as spanking and slapping) and its effects on their chil-dren. The question of whether corporal punishment is an effective method of discipline is hotly debated. Straus contends that this believed-to-be-"minor" form of physical violence is precursor to much violence that plagues our world. Children who are spanked quickly learn that love and violence can go hand in hand. Since spanking is generally done by loving, caring parents for the child's own good a child can learn that hitting is "morally right." Straus describes what he has learned through two decades of research: children who are spanked are from two to six times more likely to be physically aggressive, to become juvenile delinquents, and later, as adults, to use physical violence against their spouses, to have sadomasochistic tendencies, and to suffer from depression. Straus alerts parents to these risks, and argues that spanking adversely affects not only the children who are subjected to it but society as a whole. This groundbreaking book, now available in paperback with a substantive new introduction and new concluding chapter, is essential reading for parents as well as teachers, lawyers, and judges. Professionals in fields such as social work, child protection, delin-quency and criminology, psychology, and politics will find it of critical importance.

divDespite being commonplace in American households a generation ago, corporal punishment of children has been subjected to criticism and shifting attitudes in recent years. Many school districts have banned it, and many child advocates recommend that parents no longer spank or strike their children. In this book, social theorist Michael Donnelly and family violence expert Murray A. Straus tap the expertise of social science scholars and researchers who address issues of corporal punishment, a subject that is now characterized as a key issue in child welfare. The contributors discuss corporal punishment, its use, causes, and consequences, drawing on a wide array of comparative, psychological, and sociological theories. Together, they clarify the analytical issues and lay a strong foundation for future research and interdisciplinary collaboration. /DIV

Recommendations -- Methodology -- Corporal punishment in US public schools -- Corporal punishment by the numbers -- Behaviors leading to beatings -- Impact of corporal punishment -- Parents' inability to protect children -- Best practices : effective discipline for students with disabilities -- International Human Rights Law protecting students with disabilities -- Conclusion.