Prevalence, Societal Causes, and Trends in Corporal Punishment by Parents in World Perspective

Abstract

This article looks at corporal punishment by parents from several anglesfrom its links to familial behavior patterns to global variations in its use.First, it describes the prevalence of spanking and other legal forms of corporal punishment (CP) around the world.Second, it presents and illustrates a theoretical model arguing that an important part of the causes of CP are to be found in the nature of society.Third, it presents some of the evidence that a world-wide reduction in the use of CP is taking place.Fourth, it suggests changes in society that may be producing the decrease.The bulk of the research 1 leads to the conclusion that CP has harmful side effects, and that conclusion is an underlying assumption of this article.For the legal community, the information on the prevalence and trends in use of CP and in public attitudes concerning CP is important because the longstanding "reasonable force" defense against prosecution of parents for assault is undergoing change.For example, in response to the changes in public approval of CP described in this article, the standards for judging what constitutes reasonable force are probably changing.Second, a number of nations have removed the reasonable-force defense entirely.Both the European Union and the United Nations have asked all nations to prohibit CP by parents.The definition of CP that guides this article is "the use of physical force with the intention of causing [bodily] pain, but not injury, for purposes of correction

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