The spanking debate is dead

I feel it is important to make it very clear to all concerned that the spanking debate within the scientific and academic communities is dead, and has been for a number of years. The most substantial indicator of this development is evidenced by the fact that virtually all professional organizations in the US and Canada concerned with the care and treatment of children have taken a public stand against the practice of spanking. .

Based on the overwhelming accumulation of research over the last 50 years or more linking spanking to a number of risk factors, the professional consensus against the practice has grown to worldwide proportions… even to the point of that 52 countries have legislated total bans on spanking. …including countries like Sweden, Finland, Austria, Norway, Croatia, Denmark, Hungary, Israel, Cyprus, Netherlands, Bulgaria, Germany, Latvia, Iceland, Romania, Greece, New Zealand, Austria, Venezuela, Spain, Portugal, Chile, Uruguay, Brazil, France and Ukraine… with Italy, South Africa, Scotland, Canada and Ireland apparently in the process of following suit. It should also be noted that every industrialized country in the world except the US has instituted outright bans on corporal punishment in schools. The evidence is out there, and the evidence has ruled against the practice of spanking in an irresistibly conclusive way.

Just as one can find supportive views promoting spanking (typically) on websites sponsored by fundamentalist Christian sects, one can also find supportive views promoting homophobia, racism, misogyny, and other propaganda. of “hate groups”. Due to the fact that the actual agendas of these sites are often deceptively disguised with organizational titles like ‘Family Council’, ‘People’s Choice’, ‘Rights and Freedoms’, etc., people are forced to exercise judicious discernment. of the information is available on the Internet. Some netizens have had to learn the hard way that the Internet abounds with persuasive presentations of “facts and figures” that can be shown to represent nothing more than religious, political, or philosophical attempts to spread self-serving misinformation.

Having spent over 40 years examining/evaluating the research on this topic of spanking children, I can say with a high degree of confidence that there has never been a peer-reviewed study that has been able to establish the efficacy of spanking as a means of long-term behavior modification; as an effective teaching modality; as effective punishment; or as a means to instill self-discipline. There have also been no published research findings in peer-reviewed professional journals that would serve to refute previous research.

This earlier research found that spanking is associated with a risk of undesirable emotional consequences; a risk of physical injury; a risk of counterproductive behavioral outcomes; a risk of dependence on external controls; and a propensity toward behavior directed by authority. Furthermore, no research data have ever been produced to show that spanking does not carry a risk to the quality of the parent-child relationship (and I should add that conservative, pro-spanking editorial reviews of previous research findings do not constitute a real investigation, as it is sometimes considered). claimed to be the case).

However, there are some scourges who will find reasons to dismiss, ignore, or dismiss the research findings from experimental field studies related to the Social Sciences. Well, it is especially to these people that I would like to address the alarming new research findings, which represent the most serious consequences of corporal punishment yet discovered… when doing so in the form of documented scientific evidence*.

These revelations come from brain research studies that have provided CAT SCAN images showing an abnormal lack of brain development (within the part of the brain responsible for emotional functioning) in children who had been subjected to spanking as a punitive measure. In the interests of sample homogeneity, the researchers chose subjects for their study who had been categorized as ‘abused’ children. Common sense tells us that this does not eliminate the possibility of a lesser degree of brain damage occurring in spanked children who are subjected to a lesser degree of non-injurious violence.

In other words, it would be fun to assume that a child must first sustain bruises, cuts, or welts (or other injuries) before brain damage occurs as a result of physical punishment. Rather, it is much more logical to deduce that acts of physical aggression towards young children can alter or impede the optimal conditions necessary to facilitate a normal process of healthy brain development.

As far as I’m concerned, this new area of ​​research (apparently not yet freely available on the Internet) represents the most compelling and undeniable reason yet discovered to persuade parents to stop (or never start) hitting their children. children as a punitive measure. And I hope any pro-spankers reading this feel the same way. It is hard to imagine a father willing to treat his son in a way that would carry a remote risk of causing a measure of brain damage to his son.

But despite all that being said, we really shouldn’t need research to end child-beating any more than we need research to end wife-beating. As a society, there was no need for research findings to convince us of the harmful effects associated with the practice of physically punishing wives.

Instead, when society reached the point where it was no longer willing to accord social tolerance to the tradition of husbands physically disciplining their wives, our decision to do so was based on the fact that we had progressed socially toward the higher morality of a humankind. elderly. Perhaps our next step forward should be to make the decision to start recognizing children as serving those same protections against being punitively hit.

We no longer see any adult member of our society standing outside the jurisdiction of protective laws once enjoyed only by the most privileged and ‘deserving’ (i.e., the white males who made the laws), regardless of race, gender, religion, ethnic group. , or sexual orientation. None of our adult citizens remains legally unprotected from being violated by harassment, threats, defamation, discrimination, or being the victim of violence in any degree or form.

So, given our heritage of granting greater humanity to those of lower social status by receiving them as our equals in the eyes of the law (in terms of violent treatment), would it be so out of character for us to also protect members youngest and weakest in our society by allowing them to join those of us who already share the safety and comfort of security that comes under the umbrella of legal protections against violence?

Bringing our little ones into the fold doesn’t really seem all that magnanimous when you consider that we’ve already been willing to share the shelter of our umbrella of assault laws with even the most vicious adult criminals. After all, children are the last segment of our shared human collective that still remains easy prey for acts of physical aggression.

We show an odd sense of priorities when we don’t let the prison guard pull out a paddle and start beating the disobedient buttocks of a sociopathic death row inmate who kills for the thrill of it, but find ourselves helpless. , helpless little children as servants of such treatment.

The fact is that we define corporal punishment of inmates as ‘cruel and unusual punishment’, ‘guard brutality’ or ‘aggravated assault’. And, if physical punishment is repeated as a routine punitive measure, such treatment of prisoners would fall under the definition of ‘Torture’.

Why would a murderous inmate be less subject to physical discipline than a defenseless 3-year-old?

Logically, morally, humanely, and scientifically, the spanking debate is dead… except for those who would oppose further social progress.

As we evolve as a society, we must keep in mind that historically there was a time when it was acceptable to legally own other people; a time when the mentally ill were generally considered to be possessed by evil spirits; a time when men legally shot each other in official duels; a time when public hangings were attended as a family outing complete with picnic basket; a time when public flogging was considered an acceptable punishment; a time when it was a gentleman’s agreement that husbands not beat their wives with a cane that was ’rounder than the thumb’ (later known as ‘the general rule’); and there was a time when there were no laws against parents severely beating their children (killing children was unacceptable, of course, but the occasional accidental maiming as a result of disciplinary measures was tolerated).

Obviously, we no longer allow these punishments. The time has come for us to further increase our level of social sophistication by coming to general agreement that any degree of physical punishment used against children is socially unacceptable and repugnant like the violent behaviors of the past that we have decided to leave behind.