Abstract
The issue of Corporal Punishment has been around for many years. This issue arose due to people taking advantage of using corporal punishment on their children. There have been many states that have made corporal punishment illegal. This doesn’t stop from people debating on what they think is right. People assume that using corporal punishment will affect their children in the long run and cause no good. Others think using corporal punishment specifically spanking will do their children good and teach them to behave. This topic will be talked about until there is a law in every state and until people agree with it. It may never happen for all people since everyone has their own opinion on corporal punishment.
There have been a tremendous amount of people wondering about a question that come across their mind a numerous of times. People wonder whether corporal Punishment should be used in children and if so how much. Everyone has their opinion on Corporal Punishment. Some people may be for it or against it, they may think it would do their children some good or vice versa. There are many controversies out there between people debating their opinion and are determined prove what they think is right.
History
The use of Corporal punishment goes way back to thousands of years. (Lambert, 2010) stated all the way up to about the 20th century Corporal punishment has been used in schools by the teachers and principals. Back then parents and the schools thought that the use of corporal punishment was an efficient form of punishment. Up until around now Corporal punishment has been gone from legal to illegal in many states in the United States. In the article of History of Corporal Punishment (Robinson,2009) explains how a survey was taken of parents to see what form of punishment they used, the results showed that in the year 1962 about roughly 95% parents used some sort of corporal punishment (spanking) and in 1993 it dropped increasingly to 13%. Now parents use other forms of punishment like time out or other techniques. These results have proven to show how over the years parents have stopped using corporal punishment in general.
How corporal punishment may lead to child abuse?
Corporal Punishment in children has been a major issue for many years. No action has been taken using corporal punishment because there is no exact law stating that the use of corporal punishment isn’t right. Unless you live in a certain state that states this law for that state. Therefore until that law is made the use of corporal punishment is very much acceptable until it gets to the point where it may lead to child abuse; which does occur in many cases.
There are beliefs that people may have thoughts between crossing the line from punishment and child abuse (Hodnys, 2007). She speaks highly of this topic. Although this isn’t exactly corporal punishment, there are facts that prove that depending on the parents it may lead to child abuse. There is information on how child maltreatment may lead to child abuse (Hussey, Chang, Kotch, 2006) although it isn’t child abuse it is dependable to be considered to lead to child abuse.
(Straus, 2000) explains how when parents use corporal punishment in children it would get out of hand when the parents couldn’t stop or they were so mad that they just kept going until it got to the point of child abuse . She states a great point where parents who have had corporal punishment used on them as a child they would use the same discipline skills because they weren’t taught any other forms of discipline techniques.
The aspects of corporal punishment haven’t been proven to not be a useful form of punishment. Although hitting without leaving marks may one day cause the parents to accidently use to much force.
This picture represents an 8 year old boy who his father whipped him with a belt. This may come across as a disturbing picture in many people’s eyes. People seeing a picture a bit graphic like this might consider not using any corporal punishment at all because they see the pain that was caused to this boy. This is a good example of a parent using corporal punishment and taking it too far. This would no longer have been considered corporal punishment and more on the side of abuse since he left evidence of the whip lashes on his sons back. This picture could also get parents to be careful when using corporal punishment and understand that causing any harm to a child’s body that shows evidence is no longer called corporal punishment and is now called child abuse.
Spanking
(Straus,2000) made it clear on promoting the No-Spanking message because this was her way of spreading the word. People refused to do so because parents wouldn’t change their ways of discipline, which didn’t stop her from getting her message across.
This picture represents how people who are against corporal punishment just look at this picture to know that they strongly believe in not hitting their children. This is a good example of what a family might look at to think that not using spanking as a form of punishment is the best possible way of discipline. Families can learn other ways to discipline that may be effective and maybe better than using Corporal punishment. This goes along with what Straus was promoting. This picture could let other people know by seeing this particular picture of the family that using other forms of punishment can also be effective instead of causing pain to your child. Although people have their own thoughts about spanking people wear t-shirts, make signs and use other forms of messages to try to get their point across to people hoping it will change their mind.
In transition (Larzelere, 2001) justifies how there isn’t anything that shows that using spanking as a form of punishment will cause any harm to children. Parents though should take in consideration how hard they spank their child that may cause them harm and also how often they do it. If you use spanking as a form of punishment each time a child does something they probably will not take you serious or they will think you get the pleasure out of hitting them. Spanking should only be used when any other technique doesn’t work.
(Oas, 2010) clarifies how using spanking as a form of corporal punishment is acceptable. He explains how the use of spanking has been around for an extreme amount of years; People all over consider corporal punishment to be necessary. Statistics have shown that over 90% of Americans (Oas, 2010) spank their children. He stated that the National Clearing House of Child Abuse and Neglect explained how people need the knowledge of knowing the difference between corporal punishment and abuse. He goes into great detail about a family he helped and he explains how most parents don’t feel comfortable hitting their children but getting knowledge and using good techniques help parents know it okay to use physical punishment and it can be healthy for a child.
Consequences of using Corporal Punishment
(Straus, Kantor, 1994) implies the possible consequences that may come along with the corporal punishment. These factors include the way they may act towards their spouse and kids. It may cause them to have problems with their relationships with other people. These are all negative aspects that come along with the use of corporal punishment. They also imply a positive aspect of the use of corporal punishment (Straus, Kantor, 1994) included that the use of corporal punishment is harmless when it doesn’t lead to child abuse and depending on the situation it can be necessary form of punishment. All of these aspects need to be considered.
Conclusion
The proper way to handle whether Corporal punishment is suitable for your family or not is to determine the effectiveness it has when you use it. If your children seem to react and behave well after using it than obviously it is a well form of punishment for your family. As long as it isn’t taken further than that. If it doesn’t seem like it works well because you use it too much than families need to take in consideration and use other forms of punishment. Corporal punishment is a debatable subject for families, as long as corporal punishment is legal where ever you live.
Call to Action
Many people in the United States have been faced with an issue whether using Corporal Punishment is the best form of punishment when disciplining a child. There are many measures to be considered when deciding which path to take with this type of issue. If people didn’t use some form of corporal punishment would other forms of punishment like timeout/scolding work to keep the child’s behavior under control. Therefore these measures need to be taken in consideration when coming to a decision. I believe that Corporal punishment is very well a good form of punishment when needed. Parents shouldn’t over exceed the use of it.
Therefore the first step is determining what is acceptable. Getting rid of corporal punishment shouldn’t be done; there are some limitations that should be made before over doing with corporal punishment. I don’t think getting rid of corporal punishment will do any good at all therefore the measure that should be taken are to figure out what should be allowed and what not. There are proven facts that say spanking a child as a last resort when they don’t listen to any form of punishment is efficient. Only using spanking when needed is the way to go. It won’t cause the child any harm as long as you don’t use too much force. Therefore the only type of corporal punishment that should be allowed is spanking. Nothing else and that includes no slapping, hitting, or anything even if it doesn’t leave a mark.
The First step I would take is to propose to make this a law. Since the people who make the laws for the United States are the Congress then they pass the law on to the president. So the finally decision would be up to the president. What I would propose is to only allow spanking as corporal punishment and the spanking can only occur on the child’s bottom. If it takes place anywhere else it is no longer considered spanking and should not be allowed and there are consequences that should take place if evidence shows that people are mistreating the use of spanking.
The good side to spanking is it will not cause your child harm in the long run. As long as you remind them that you are doing it because you love them and not because you like seeing them in pain; therefore for those parents who think that it will cause them to have problems in their future it will not. It will actually do them some good as long as they know you are doing it because they did something wrong and they shouldn’t do it again and not just for your entertainment.
If the law gets past it will do everyone some good because at least parents will still have some form of corporal punishment to use as a last resort when nothing else works out. Hopefully this will help decrease child abuse, since it would be against the law to hit any child anywhere else besides the bottom. There are many people who don’t agree with this law that was proposed. In their eyes they might want to get rid of corporal punishment in general or vice versa. I think keeping spanking as a punishment will be the most effective and work out for most people and is better for the United States.
References
(2010). Corporal punishment of children remains common worldwide, UNC studies find. Retrieved from: credited source http://www.corpun.com
Hetter, K. (2011). Punishment without spanking. CNN Living. Retrieved from: http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/08/living/corporal-punishment/index.html
Hodny, T. (2007). Corporal punishment and rules of reason. Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues, 16(1), 111-114, 4
Hussey, J. M., Chang, J. J., & Kotch, J. B. (2006). Child maltreatment in the united states: Prevalence, risk factors, and adolescent health consequences. Offical Journal Of The American Academy Of Pediatrics, 118(3), p.933-942. Retrieved from http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/118/3/933.full.pdf
Jackson, S., Thompson, R. A., Christiansen, E. H., Colman, R. A., Wyatt, J., Buckendahl, C. W., Wilcox, B. L., & Peterson, R. (1999). Predicting abuse-prone parental attitudes and discipline practices in a nationally representative sample. Child Abuse & Negslect, 23(1), p.15-29. Retrieved from http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/labs/Thompson/pubs/article/Jacksone tal1999.pdf
Kuppens, S., Grietens, H., Onghena, P., & Michiels, D. (2009). Associations between parental control and children. The British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 27(3), 607-623
Lambert, T. (2010). A brief history of corporal punishment
Oas, P. T. (2010). Current status on corporal punishment with children: What the literature says. The American Journal of Family Therapy, 38(5), p.413-420 8p
Robinson, B. A. (2009). Child corporal punishment: spanking. Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Straus, M. A. (2000). Corporal punishment and primary prevention of physical abuse. Child Abuse & Neglect, 24(9), p. 1109-1114. Retrieved from http://gauss.unh.edu/~mas2/CP65.pdf
Straus, M. A., & Kantor, G. K. (1994). Corporal punishment of adolescents by parents: A risk factor in the epidemiology of depression, suicide, alcohol abuse, child abuse, and wife beating. Adolescence, 29, Retrieved from http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst;jsessionid=F0350C7651A 3085D47C9DE08CA2C7DCC.inst1_1a?docId=5000287889
Whitney, S., Tajima, E., Herrenkhol, T., & Huang, B. (2006). Defining child abuse: Exploring variations in ratings of discipline severity among child welfare practitioners. Child & Adolescent Social Work Journal, 23(3), 316-342, 27
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