Spanking as a Type of Corporal Penalty
Spanking is a form of corporal punishment. Corporal punishment is the deliberate infliction of pain as retribution for an offence. It is usually done in act by an adult, parent, or guardian hitting the child or students buttock. The reason this is done is in response to bad behavior. Some countries have outlawed the act of pking in every setting, but many allow it as long as it is done by a parent or guardian. As many people think pking is an okay discipline, this one of the most controversial methods of disciplining your child.
On one side some parents think pking should never be done, and then there are parents who believe it is okay as long as it is done for a particular reason. To some pking a child means “slapping a child on the buttock” (Straus, 1991, pg 5) Spanking a child may stop the child from behaving for the moment but that will only last for a short period of time. An article from Mayo Clinic states, “Children learn how to act by watching their parents. The best way to show your child how to behave is to set a positive example for him or her to follow” This is saying that if you pk your child, your child will think it is okay to hurt others.
Also that your children look up to you, parents are a role model for their child. There was a study released in 1991 by The Family Research Laboratory of the Univeristy of New Hampshire that was showed that the more a child is pked, the lower that their IQ test will be in four years. The paper was described by researcher Dr. Straus at the World Congress of Sociology in Montreal. They studied 960 children who were varied between the ages of one and four between the years of 1986-1990.
Thirteen percent of parents examined pking their children seven or more time a week. The usual was 3. 6 pking per week. The children that were physically disciplined scored a below average score of 98 on their tests. Those who were almost never disciplined scored an above average of 102 on their tests. “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. (Jane Gadd, “Spanked children suffer intellectually,” The Globe and Mail, Toronto ON, 1998-JUL-30)
This is stating that children do not need to be hit in order to be taught between wrong and right. Beacause pking a child may be effective for a while it can escalade. The parent will often repeat this action every time the child misbehaves. Corporal punishment may become an “everyday” action which can lead to an increasingly normal and harsher pking can exceed the reasonable force and later turn into abuse. 85% of all cases of physical abuse result from some form of over discipline through the use of corporal punishment” this means that 85% of cases of abuse have started from a simple pking and escaladed.
That being said, after pking has led to more this action can unintentionally cause serious physical damage. A child that is hit can accidentally fall and injure themselves. Hitting a child’s hand can cause premature osteoarthritis, injure bones, blood vessels, joints and ligaments. Spanking a child can cause death, injure the tail bone, the sciatic nerve, and even injure muscles. Hitting the ear can burst the ear drum.
