Corporal Punishment: Physical Force Causing Pain, Not Wounds
What is corporal punishment?
We have all experienced incidences of corporal punishment: when a mother smacks her son, trying to stop his tantrum because she doesn 't want to buy him something; when a father shakes his daughter because she has hit another child; when an adolescent is hit for answering back. It 's not unusual to see smacking or blows to the neck. Most people living in Spain don 't see corporal punishment as something strange, something to be questioned, and yet it does make us feel uncomfortable. Even people who think there are good reasons for corporal punishment often can 't avoid feeling slightly uneasy after meting it out. They don 't feel good about it.
The term 'corporal punishment ' can be understood in various ways; we therefore propose the following definition:
“Corporal punishment is the use of physical force causing pain, but not wounds, as a means of discipline.” Spanking, rapping on the head and slapping are forms of corporal punishment which we do not classify as abuse. There are two factors to be taken into consideration when distinguishing between corporal punishment and physical abuse:
•
•
Intensity: the extent to which injuries have resulted from the use of violence.
Intention: the extent to which the intention is to teach/discipline.
Corporal punishment is just one of the wrong ways to discipline a child. The aim is not to substitute corporal punishment with psychological abuse but to discipline without using violence. Many people have been submitted to corporal punishment without being traumatized by it, however, the risk of its causing emotional harm to children requires us, as parents and as a society, to seek alternatives.
The use of corporal punishment is strongly rooted in our society and is passed on through generations, however, this doesn 't mean that corporal punishment is justified. We just have to consider the treatment of women years ago, which was as different from today, accepting
We have all experienced incidences of corporal punishment: when a mother smacks her son, trying to stop his tantrum because she doesn 't want to buy him something; when a father shakes his daughter because she has hit another child; when an adolescent is hit for answering back. It 's not unusual to see smacking or blows to the neck. Most people living in Spain don 't see corporal punishment as something strange, something to be questioned, and yet it does make us feel uncomfortable. Even people who think there are good reasons for corporal punishment often can 't avoid feeling slightly uneasy after meting it out. They don 't feel good about it.
The term 'corporal punishment ' can be understood in various ways; we therefore propose the following definition:
“Corporal punishment is the use of physical force causing pain, but not wounds, as a means of discipline.” Spanking, rapping on the head and slapping are forms of corporal punishment which we do not classify as abuse. There are two factors to be taken into consideration when distinguishing between corporal punishment and physical abuse:
•
•
Intensity: the extent to which injuries have resulted from the use of violence.
Intention: the extent to which the intention is to teach/discipline.
Corporal punishment is just one of the wrong ways to discipline a child. The aim is not to substitute corporal punishment with psychological abuse but to discipline without using violence. Many people have been submitted to corporal punishment without being traumatized by it, however, the risk of its causing emotional harm to children requires us, as parents and as a society, to seek alternatives.
The use of corporal punishment is strongly rooted in our society and is passed on through generations, however, this doesn 't mean that corporal punishment is justified. We just have to consider the treatment of women years ago, which was as different from today, accepting
Bibliography: In Spanish society, 47% of adults consider that hitting boys and girls is sometimes necessary, and a 27% admit to doing it regularly (“Spanish attitudes to corporal punishment”, 1997)