Corporal Punishment Eric Halliday Essay Research Paper

Corporal punishment- is defined as “the use of physical force with the intention of causing a child to experience pain, but not injury, for the purpose of correction or control of the child’s behaviour” (Webster’s Dictionary).

Spanking children to correct or control their behaviour may seem to work in the short term, but has the opposite effect in the long term. Spanking has been linked to anti socialism, violence, and low grades causing juvenile delinquents. 61% of mothers with children between the ages of 3 and 5 report spanking their children an average of three times a week (Giles-Sims, Straus, & Sugarman, 1995)

Researchers have found that children who are spanked are much more antisocial than children who are not are. Antisocial children usually do not get along well with others, cheat, and tell lies, deliberately brake things, bully other children, do poorly in school, they do not fell badly for things they have done, and usually have trouble getting along with teachers (http://archive.abcnews.go.com/sections/newsuse/wnt0814_spank/).

Parents sometimes believe that they can give their child emotional warmth to stop the effects of corporal punishment, but this has no effect on the situation (http://www.naturalchild.org/). When a child is physically hurt by someone they love, they automatically have distrust towards others. Considering research shows that antisocial behaviour in childhood is associated with violence and other crimes as adults (http://www.socs ci.com), society as whole, would benefit from ending Corporal punishment.

Hitting is wrong. To hit someone is a violent thing to do. The term for violence is To strike a person, to make another hurt” (Webster’s Dictionary). We should not hurt children, we want to be kind and gentle, not harsh. We want to be tender merciful and compassionate.

When you hit a child, it teaches them to use violence (http://www.ac.wwu.edu.com). They will use violence when they are in a situation, because they do not know any better. When they have children of their own, they will use corporal punishment as discipline, because they were taught that striking a loved one is acceptable. Children who are not spanked as children are kinder, gentler, and less violent (http://www3.extension.umn.edu/distribution/familydevelopment/).

The way a spanking looks and feels, is confusing for children. They cannot tell what it means. Parents are their example of what is right and good. Parents’ behaviour is their example of what love looks and feels like. Hitting a child seems to say that it is all right to hit people. When a person wants to control others, spanking says it is okay to hit them (http://www.newfoundations.com/). “Corporal punishment communicates to children that violence is an acceptable method of solving problems and dealing with interpersonal conflicts”

(http://alpha.fdu.edu.htm/Dr. Goldstein said in 1998).

Most teachers will tell you that the children who show the most serious behaviour problems at school are the ones who are the most mistreated at home. Children who are spanked at home have been conditioned to expect the same kind of treatment by authority figures outside the home. For these children, their home life includes school life (http://www.ndhu.edu.tw/ iedu/proarticles/inbehavior.htm). This sets them up for academic failure and dropout. By this they have gone against authority figures and the justice system.

They perceive the world to be a comfortless, hostile world, these children seek the company of other children with similar problems. “My parents and teachers don’t understand me, my friends do,” they say. This is one reason street gangs evolve and why they are especially attractive to children whose self-esteem has been ruined by spanking (http://www.angelfire.com/sk/abuse/index.html/). “We know that children who are under the threat of violence or aggression develop a fight-or-flight response system that has an impact on creativity and imagination, both of which could influence their IQ…Children need discipline but not hitting” (Ms. Dawn Walker, http://alpha.fdu.edu.htm/).

We should not be surprised that many youngsters reject the adult world because they believe it has rejected them. We should not be surprised that adolescents, who throughout childhood have been the life of violence, will use violence as soon as they are able because they believe it is essential for their survival. This dooms them for failure. Our crowded prisons are proof of this.

Here are some other statistics on corporal punishment.

Never spanked Rarely spanked Sometimes/ Often Spanked

Anxiety 16.3% 18.8% 21.3%

Major Depression 4.6% 4.8% 6.9%

Alcohol/ Substance Abuse 5.8% 10.2% 13.2%

More than One Disorder 7.5% 12.6% 16%

(http://www.religioustolerance.org/spanking.htm#stud).

Work Cited

 Webster’s Dictionary

 Giles-Sims, Straus, & Sugarman, 1995

 (http://archive.abcnews.go.com/sections/newsuse/wnt0814_spank/)

 http://www.naturalchild.org/

 http://www.socs ci.com

 http://www.ac.wwu.edu.com

 http://www3.extension.umn.edu/distribution/familydevelopment/

 http://www.newfoundations.com/

 Dr. Goldstein

 http://www.ndhu.edu.tw/ iedu/proarticles/inbehavior.htm

 http://www.angelfire.com/sk/abuse/index.html/

 Ms. Dawn Walker

 http://www.religioustolerance.org/spanking.htm#stud

 http://alpha.fdu.edu.htm/