The Case Against Child Spanking At Home: A Study of LACC Students Population
by Lutfi Latif

Introduction Child spanking is a common practice in the American society regardless of ethnic background or place of origin. Also known as scolding and corporal punishment, it's an ancient practice that for ages was implemented by parents who believed it to be a proper way of rearing their children and conditioning them to good behavior. One of the roots of corporal punishment is religious, and many people refer to the Bible (1) as supporting and even requiring corporal punishment. Others would use spanking methods just because they simply believe it's an appropriate way of discipline that yields desired results. But before I proceed in my work I feel that it's essential to define what I mean by corporal punishment. (p. 4) My definition of child spanking is the applying of force on a child body without causing a bodily injury, done by a parent or a care-taker as a disciplinary measure in order to condition the child to a certain desired behavior. This is mainly an operational definition that I will use when I make the case against spanking. I will discuss the efficiency of this definition as well as its advantages in more details in the spanking definition section of this work. In the last few years child spanking drew great attention in the United States as well as around the world. The United Nations Organization held an international conference on the child's rights (2), and a special attention was drawn to spanking in the Scandinavian countries such as Sweden (3), Denmark and others, where spanking was legally banned. In the United States we have 27 states which banned spanking at schools while spanking is not illegal at home the situation. (1, under Situation at Home.) Close to 50% of Americans use spanking as a disciplinary tool in rearing their children (4). Data from the field also show that attitudes about the subject slowly changed towards abandoning spanking and embracing other creative nonviolent alternatives for spanking. These studies are mainly concerned with the long run effects and deal with the effects on spanked children over many years. I will refer to their results later in this paper, but at this point I will point out that they are beyond the ambitions of this humble paper. In this work I will attempt to study the child spanking practice in the student population of Los Angeles City College. In essence, it will take a random sample of about a hundred students and collect data concerning their beliefs on the subject, their actual practices, their experience and observations as to how efficient is child spanking, and children's response to it. I will attempt to compare my data with the national data in order to see how our local community would fair when compared to the national ones and see if the same national trends are part of this community. Using statistical tools of research such as Hypothesis testing, proportion comparisons and statistical correlation, I will attempt to show similarity or deviation trends. (Appendix, A, C, also The findings section p.14). Many different factors might affect one's beliefs on corporal punishment such as the education level, economic background, ethnic and religious background, gender, age, family size, place of origin, etc. Within my sample, I will subdivide it into six main ethnic groups: African American, Hispanic, Asian, Caucasian, Armenian and other (Appendix, C, table 1). The sample will include questions about the parents, family history of practices related to child spanking as well as religious backgrounds because I believe that spanked children are likely to become spanking parents. Furthermore, there is a reason to believe that there is a positive correlation between the parents' religious conservative background and the use of spanking as a disciplinary tool since it's mentioned in the Bible: "Spare the rod, spoil the child." Both beliefs I am going to examine and see if there is an empirical basis that significantly supports my beliefs. It's also my belief that in rearing their children spanking parents usually use unexamined methods of discipline and patterns of rearing inherited from their parents without questioning or serious study to challenge the validity and efficiency of such methods. Most states in our country abolished corporal punishment in schools. This makes me wonder why something that is bad in schools is OK at home? It's my belief that corporal punishment is wrong and promotes violence; add to it that there are numerous creative and more efficient methods of rearing our children, one would be left with the only conclusion, that corporal punishment should be abolished at home as well. I will make the case against spanking in the last section of this work; I will also offer my own solution to the spanking problem. The Definition of Child Spanking When I started to research this topic and after observing a few other definitions, I realized that there is no one definition that will satisfy all researchers and cover all cases and conditions of child spanking. The subject is far more complex than abruptly being defined. Nevertheless, I felt the need to devise my own definition of child spanking. My definition is: The form of domestic disciplinary method carried out by a parent or a care-taker; and implemented by the means of applying physical force on any part of the child's body without causing bodily injury, done as a disciplinary measure in order to condition the child to a certain desired behavior. This definition might seem too wide to some, since it may include child abuse; but we must not forget that child spanking and child abuse differ in their consequences for both the parent and the child. In many cases caretakers try to justify spanking or abuse "as needed to discipline the child ", but that shouldn't confuse us since the real difference is the bodily injury test that the law defines in the abuse case. This is mainly an operational definition that I hope will help give a working version of child spanking. After all any definition proposed would raise or fall on the test of practicality; and I am sure that by the end of this section its practical advantage will be clear. At this point, it's worthwhile taking a closer look at the child abuse and the spanking case in order to be able to see how this definition would fair when juxtaposed with the others. In a way, the law sees child abuse as a severe case of child spanking that amounts to bodily injury. In an attempt to clarify what constitutes physical abuse, Congress enacted the Federal Child Abuse Prevention, and defined it as: " the infliction of physical injuries such as bruises, burns, welts, cuts, bone and skull fractures; these are caused by kicking, punching, biting, beating, knifing, strapping, paddling, etc." (5, Pg. 181) On the other end, child spanking in its simplest form is viewed as a simple slap on the butt. This is mostly the way dictionaries define the term spanking. For example, Merriam Webster dictionary defines spanking as: The act done by slapping with open hand on the butt, or a whacking on the bottom." This definition concentrates on explaining the meaning of the word rather than the details of the act, the means used to implement it, and the goals it aspires to achieve. As such, it is too narrow because it fails to include many cases of spanking. Some scholars don't go about choosing an expanded definition of spanking, but rather they choose to include all uses of violent force as cases of abuse. John Bradshow Ph.D., in his book Healing the Shame That Binds You, (6) uses the term "physical violence" to include all the cases that people would mostly use for child spanking: Physical violence is the norm in many dysfunctional families. This includes actual physical spanking; having to go get your own weapons of torture (belts, switches, etc.); being punched, slapped, slapped in the face, pulled on, yanked on, choked, shook, kicked, pinched, tortured with tickling, threatened with violence of abandonment; being threatened with being put in jail or having the police come; witnessing violence done to a parent or sibling. (6). Even a tickle or a threat are considered by Bradshow as "physical violence" while the physical spanking is merely one element on a long list rather than deserving a definition of its own. His rationale behind such definition is that when the child is subjected to a violent act by the parent, he or she is not in a position to either protect them selves or even avoid such aggression. This will ultimately force the child into an intolerable situation where because of her or his status as a minor, he or she will have to suffer. Thus, the expanded definition of the abuse is designed to prevent such a situation by suggesting more cases for the law to ban. Dr Susan Forward, the author of the book Toxic Parents, cracks down angrily on "the legal corporal punishment". She puts forward a daring definition of child abuse; "I have my own definition of physical abuse; any behavior that inflicts significant physical pain on a child regardless of whether it leaves marks." (Forward p. 181). Both Dr. Susan Forward and John Bradshaw have chosen to devise a way to expand on the law definition of child abuse, rather than expanding the simple spanking definition of the term child spanking. This approach is vague and overly expansive. It might help make a point against spanking, but it has dubious benefits when one looks for operational or practical results. Many people would see it as exaggerated and allowing it would result in expanding on the child abuse definition, which in its turn will give the government an opening to further regulate our life and infringe on the parents' rights to raise their children as they see fit. Another scholar, Dr Murray Straus, admits that different parents use different definitions of spanking, and refers to spanking "to mean any form of corporal punishment that is not severe enough to be classified as physical abuse" (14, p. 5). Here is what he says and how he defines spanking: Most surveys, including the surveys analyzed for this paper, operationalized corporal punishment by asking whether the respondent approved of "spanking." If one takes this literally, then the present paper is about spanking, i.e., hitting a child on the buttocks. However, many parents use "spanking" to mean any form of corporal punishment that is not severe enough to be classified as physical abuse...For purposes of this paper, we defined corporal punishment as: An act by a parent or other caretaker which is intended to cause physical pain, but not injury, for purposes of correction or control. (14, Definition) Both my definition and Straus's are operational definitions devised to serve achieve the purposes of a specific project while fairly referring to what the average person means by the term child spanking. Moreover, both definitions set the limits between spanking and abuse to be the cause of bodily injury. This is mainly the way the law defines the test for child abuse. My definition and Straus's differs from each other by the pain causing criteria he includes. The disciplinary act has to cause some physical pain to be included, so by his definition one might think that if the measure taken did not cause pain then it's not spanking. My definition of spanking, on the other hand, includes the applying of physical force on any part of the child's body. For example: consider a case where a parent applies force on the child's body and firmly pins her to the wall (without causing any pain) in order to achieve some disciplinary goal he or she has in mind. In my definition, this is spanking while Straus's definition would fail to include it since it didn't cause any pain to the child. The rationale behind such thinking would be to devise a definition that would cover all the grounds between the simple slap on the butt up to an act that "severe enough to be classified as physical abuse." Otherwise, our definition would leave us with uncharted area between child spanking and physical abuse. This becomes crucial when one tries to make the case against spanking as a violence promoting act, or when we claim that spanking is only a prelude to abuse. In such case, any act that will include the applying of force on the child's body, as "not spanking if not painful" will be self-contradicting, and consequently fail to fulfil its goal. In other words, one can not be selective when rejecting a violent act and imply that some violence is tolerable if not physically painful. Therefore, any kind of force used in a disciplinary process has to be excluded since it would be equally violent. What about other kinds of pain that such an act would cause? Consider again the above example of "pinning a child to the wall", wouldn't that hurt her feelings? Aren't emotional pain and all the negative consequences on the child's soul worthy to be seriously considered in the spanking definition? It's clear then, that the definition I suggest has an obvious advantage. It's also important to pay attention to the fact that "the bodily injury test" is very narrow and restrictive in its implementation because it only considers the severe cases of abuse as a felony. Moreover, abuse has to have the intent or malicious negligence in it in order for it to amount to an offense. This arouses the skepticism whether the upper limit, namely the bodily injury, is the proper limit for spanking? But before we answer this question I would like to turn to some of the results from the students' views survey in LACC, and see some of the trends in the way the average student defines spanking, The following Chart 1 represents five different definitions of child spanking and their correspondent popularity in the sample population. Each Bar chart illustrates how each one of five different child spanking definitions had faired in the students' opinions. The definitions were as follows: 1. A disciplinary act done by a care-taker to a child by slapping on the butt or a whacking on the bottom. 2. A disciplinary act done by a caretaker to a child by slapping on the butt or the hand, or by using a tool such as a belt, stick, or a whip without causing a bodily injury. 3. A disciplinary act administered by a caretaker to a child, after been previously warned, done by slapping on the butt or the hand, or by using a tool such as a belt, stick or a whip without causing a bodily injury. 4. The form of corporal punishment carried out by a parent or a care-taker, by the means of applying force on a any part of child body or by using a tool such as a belt, whip, or a stick; without causing a bodily injury, done as a disciplinary measure in order to condition the child to a certain desired behavior. 5. An act by a parent or other caretaker which is intended to cause physical pain, but not injury, for purposes of correction or control. Table 1 Chart 1 Chart 2 The above Chart 2 and table 1, represents the popularity of each definition offered. In my attempt to shed some light on the child spanking trends I suspected that the average person understands and defines spanking in quite a different way from the way the operational definitions scholars use. My suspicions were confirmed by the results of the interviews in Chart 1. Clearly we see here that every definition offered in the survey was considered not only for the most favorite rank, but also for all ranks from one to five. I am certain if we had offered more definitions, the interviewees would had equally considered them. For one thing, this shows not only the extent of controversy over spanking, but more importantly this shows that no operational definition would be good enough to cover all opinions, thus limiting the" operational definition " to serve the researcher's narrow interest of making a stand with or against spanking regardless of the true conditions in the field. Table 1 and Chart 2 show that definition 5 was the most popular; they also show that 3 and 4 are popular and ultimately all the definitions were considered. The results show a clear tendency to select sophisticated definitions, as 72% of the interviewees considered definitions 3,4,5. The results here again show that there is no one definition that will fit everybody's views on child spanking. Moreover, this indicates that the definition of spanking is not clear and cohesive enough to satisfy every opinion and cover all factors involved. Some people would include more physical force than others, and expand the slap on the butt to the beating on other parts of the body such as the hand or the legs. Others would include using a tool such as a belt, whip, or a stick. Some would see the pain causing fact as a major factor while others would want spanking to be applied only if a warning was issued and only if accompanied by explanation of the reasons for applying it. Taking into account all the factors involved in the spanking definition, together with the fact that the law definition of child abuse is quite a narrow one, the law makers stand on the issue is understandable, because: first, it's hard to stamp a parent as a criminal for committing an act which is done with the nave intent of disciplining a child, unless it resulted in bodily injury. Second, more inclusive child abuse definitions, such as the ones suggested by Bradshaw and Dr. Forward, are less popular because they are "politically incorrect" and have a very narrow margin of error on the parents' part. Third, such act will certainly mean that the government is trying to overly regulate our private affairs and infringe on our rights to raise our children as we see fit. This leaves the child spanking opponents two obvious choices; either come up with a good solid definition that will be both inclusive and operational, or try to devise methods to reach out to parents and educate them more on this important issue. If one chooses to go the second way, one can vigorously argue the case against spanking; hoping that as time passes by, more and more parents would abandon the old ways and refrain from using this shaming act. The good news is that child spanking was in steady decline in America as well as in the world in the last twenty years. Hopefully, it will reach a point where nobody will find it necessary to use in disciplining his or her children. On the other hand, there are no guarantees that the decline in using spanking will stay on this course till the happy ending; or worse there are no guarantees that it won't start climbing again! Somehow, we need a catalyst to keep spanking on the decline course. My suggestion is, that based on the spanking definition I devised in this chapter, the law makers consider spanking at home as a misdemeanor, but if repeated three times (by the same person and against the same child), it will be considered child abuse and will be prosecuted accordingly. This can overcome the problem of the narrow child abuse definition by assigning to child spanking a practical and operational meaning. By the same token, a misdemeanor would not be as harsh as a felony, so it wouldn't be considered as overly infringing on our right to raise our children as we see fit. This also can have more benefits in the long run since it implants in the people's consciousness that child spanking is a wrongful act, and consequently this will help keep it on the course of decline until it finally vanishes from our society. The Findings from the survey 56% of the subjects interviewed agreed that there are situations were they would use (or actively use) child spanking as a disciplinary measure, (Appendix B, 21) While a child in a given family is at 67% risk of being spanked, when we take into account the interviewee's significant other(Appendix D, Calculations) , such as spouse or family member in a care-taker position. Recalling the national data, Murray Straus's sample uses 69% (14, Abstract) as the true percent of the national spanking approval rate while the National Survey For Children in Crisis reports a 49% as the true percent of the actual use of spanking nationwide (4). Using Hypothesis Testing (Appendix A) at a level of 5% risk (of being wrong), the likelihood of the 56% approval rate when assuming 49% to be the true national percentage of the spanking is higher than the likelihood of the 56% approval rate when assuming 69% to be the true national percentage of the spanking. For this reason, in the following, I chose to use 49% as the true rate of spanking parents in America. One way or another, most of the factors examined in this survey, including age, gender, marital status, financial background, and family size, seem to have an impact on the child spanking trends. But the factor that seems to be of high significance is the family history; 76% of the population in the survey reported having spanking parents, while a startling 89% (Appendix D, Calculations) of those who approved of spanking grew up under a spanking caretaker! In the following I will go through the major factors affecting the spanking trends, examine each one of them and draw conclusions if needed. Chart 3 Table 2 Chart 3 shows the ethnic background distribution of the subjects in the survey. Table 2 shows that there is no clear positive relation between ethnicity and spanking. The high percentage in the Armenian group is cancelled by the low percentage in the Hispanic group. In an attempt to explain the reason for this, I found out that accidentally, more Latinos didn't express opinion on the spanking issue than any other group. Also noteworthy that the Armenian majority in our school is of Armenian-Armenian background rather than Persian-Armenian or American-Armenians which apparently affects their views on the spanking issue. All the other groups results are pretty close to the national findings, which leaves us with the only choice to believe that the results in this survey are not conclusive enough to draw a firm conclusion on the relationship between ethnicity and spanking. Chart 4 Table 3 Same conclusion drawn on ethnicity and spanking can be fairly drawn on the gender and spanking. Table 3 shows that 58.3% of the males surveyed approve of spanking, while 53.8% of the female participants approved of it. The national data also shows (14, page 6) about 15% higher approval of spanking in males than in females. Although the above general trend is confirmed in table 3, 4.5% difference is not large enough to draw firm conclusions. Chart 5 Table 4 Chart 5 describes the marital status distribution of the subjects in the survey. Table 4 shows the approval of spanking in the marital status groups. Although, the approval of spanking in the singles group approaches the national data one (49%), it still lower than the married and the divorced ones. Nevertheless, if we ignore the divorced group, which is fairly a small group, we see a trend of higher approval of spanking in the married/divorced group than in the singles one. This probably points out that refraining from spanking is easier said than actually done. When married, one tends to be less tolerant and tend to have less time and patience to deal with disciplinary problems within the family. Chart 6 This trend is also confirmed in the family size data (Chart 6, Table 5); the higher the family's size the higher the approval of spanking. This again points out that the larger the family sizes, the heavier the load on the parents and, moreover, the higher the pressure. This will ultimately mean that alternative disciplinary methods for spanking will be less considered since by their nature they are time consuming and require more patience and tolerance on the parents' part. Same as in the Singles group, in the no children group (Single or Married w/o children), the level of approval of spanking approaches the national level. This is also the trend in the younger age group and the age group. (See explanation there.) Table 5 Chart 7 Table 6 In the Age groups (Table 6) we notice that people over thirty tend to approve of spanking more than the ones under thirty. This implies that the older a person is, the more likely he or she will approve of spanking. The percentage of approval in the lower age groups (50%) is not low in absolute terms since it approaches the national one. This reconfirms what I suspected from the previous two groups of gender and marital status. A possible explanation of the consistent 50% approval of spanking in the above three groups would be that the younger generation is mainly affected by their family views on spanking. According to this survey over 89% of those who approve of spanking had a spanking parents which implies a direct effect on the their views. Chart 8 Table 7 In the above Table 7 and Chart 8, we don't see a clear relation between education and approval of spanking. Thus, we can't draw clear conclusions based on the survey. Nevertheless one thing is clear, that the approval rate in the college/university category is surprisingly higher than the approval rate of freshmen. This result is probably a chance one and further study might confirm it or disprove it. Chart 9 Table 8 Chart 9 describes the belief distribution of the subjects in the survey. In Table 8 again we don't see a conclusive pattern to indicate a relation between the system of beliefs and the approval of spanking. The religious group's approval of spanking is high, but so is the non-religious one. But since the religious group is the largest, it's possible -if one wants to guess- that the combined average approval of spanking in the religious/conservative groups is higher than the liberal/ non- religious/atheist groups, but we have no conclusive evidence to make a call either way. Chart 10 describes the income distribution while table 9 shows that there is a positive relation between income and spanking. A close look shows that the spanking Chart 10 Table 9 approval in the lower income families (annual income< 25 K) is higher of the approval in the higher income groups. This of course, after excluding the last income category which is a small group( 3 people) and therefore I excluded it. In conclusion, most of the factors examined in this survey, including age, gender, marital status, financial background, and family size, seem to have an impact on the child spanking trends (Please refer to each case for details).But the factor that seems to be highly significant is the family history. 76% of the students in the survey reported having spanking parents, while a startling 89% of those who approved of spanking grew up in spanking families.( Appendix D, Calculations.) There was no conclusive evidence of a relationship between child spanking and ethnic background or education. Here I believe that the number of subjects surveyed was not big enough to indicate a clear relationship while factors of time limitation didn't allow me the freedom to expand on it. The approval of spanking in the younger generation and the single is lower that the total average, but it is still 50% high. Although it approaches the national data it is surprisingly high. One way to explain it is that the younger generation is highly affected by their family trends in spanking. Thus, taking into account the 89% of those who approved of spanking grew up in spanking families, the high percentage of spanking approval among the younger generation becomes fairly understandable and less surprising. The Case Against Spanking Researching this topic I came to realize that this is probably the single most controversial area within the field of child rearing. It is extremely difficult to define right and wrong parenting practices, since one most be sensitive to the fact that many families employ practices to which we all may not be accustomed. This may be due to cultural, religious, or a number of different reasons. For the purposes of this chapter, I will use the definition of corporal punishment (or spanking) that I suggested in the definition part of this work: The form of domestic disciplinary method carried out by a parent or a care-taker; implemented by the means of applying physical force on a any part of the child's body without causing a bodily injury; done as a disciplinary measure in order to condition the child to a certain desired behavior. Spanking is commonplace in many American homes. According to Kids Peace National Center for Kids in Crisis, half of the American parents say they use spanking as a way to discipline their children. This number was confirmed in my LACC survey. The approval rate of spanking in the student community was 56% (Appendix B), while a child in a given family is at 67% (Appendix D, Calculations) risk of being spanked by a caretaker (either a parent or other family member). Corporal punishment of children should be banned, because it has many negative consequences. It leads to physical abuse and contributes to the cycle of child abuse; it breeds aggression and violence; and it hinders discipline more than it helps. Spanking can lead to physical abuse. It seems to loose effectiveness over time, and parents have to hit harder, raising the danger of physical injury; of the almost three million child abuse reports made annually in the early 1990's, about 30 percent involved physical punishment (8, page 93). According to the Institute for the Prevention of Child Abuse, 85% of all cases of physical abuse result from some form of over-discipline through the use of punishment. Recently medical authorities released a statement addressing the potential physical risks associated with corporal punishment (Z. Chicarelli, M.D., B. Gullen, M.D., N. Harris, M.D). 1. Spanking can injure muscles, the sciatic nerve, pelvis, coccyx, genitals or spine; 2. Hitting a child's hand can injure bones, blood vessels, joints and ligaments; 3. Hitting on the ear can burst an eardrum, 4. Shaking can cause a concussion, whiplash, blindness, serious brain damage or even death. Many parent's beliefs about spanking are dictated by what they experienced as children (such as "I was spanked, but I turned out OK"). Most people remember being spanked by parents or teachers. Often they remember it with crystal clarity when other memories of childhood may be fuzzy. It is clear that these are very emotional events and they become engraved in memory. While most of us turn out OK in spite of spanking, it seems likely that its effects us in negative ways. According to research by M. Strauss of the Family Research Lab at the University of New Hampshire, the more corporal punishment a child experiences, the greater the probability of the child exhibiting aggressive and violent behavior. Another study shows permitting children to be aggressive towards others and spanking to correct misbehavior are linked to a high rate of aggression of children (10). Children who are often spanked learn that it is acceptable for the strong to use force against the weak. As a child grows older, physical punishment becomes even less effective. 77% of the students in LACC agreed that child spanking could get out of hand or amount to a higher level of violence (Appendix B, 19). This clearly confirms M. Strauss findings that there is a good chance that spanking will escalate into greater violence, because the child learns to hit the parent back and call him or her names. Also, the more corporal punishment children receive, the greater the chance they will hit their siblings or, as adults, their spouses. "People may think what their children are modeling is just hitting within the family, but there is a spillover from one role to another," Strauss says, "physical assaults to someone outside the family are related o the amount of corporal punishment received as a child". Children are not miniature adults. They are clumsy, they are loud, they are self-centered, and they are impatient. Unrealistic expectations for a mature behavior are often the inducement for spanking. Spanking cannot change the child's childish nature therefore using it to correct the child's behavior is as absurd as asking the child not to behave naturally. Moreover, the absurdity becomes outrageous when one considers that there is no single correctional act achieved by spanking that doesn't have a peaceful and more creative alternative; such as timeouts, rewarding good behavior, getting professional help when needed etc. The Internet is full of sites that suggest these peaceful alternatives; if one is interested they can be easily obtained. Research done by the American Medical Association (9, page 94), has found that the more a parent spanks a child for misbehaving, the worse, over time, that child behaves. That research suggests spanking kids hinders discipline more than it helps. The American Academy of Pediatrics' position over the negative consequences of corporal punishment is the following: " Alternatives to physical punishment are preferable means of discipline.Spanking may relieve a parent's frustration for the moment and extinguish the undesirable behavior for a brief time. But it is the last effective way to discipline" (11). There is no research that shows that spanking works better than other discipline methods, says Dr. Murray Strauss, who reported in a study of 270 students of two New England colleges. Students reported that spanking was not effective almost half of the time when it was used on them as children. In my LACC student survey 50% of the students believed that spanking is ineffective disciplinary measure (Appendix B, 14). Basically, spanking does not change behavior in the long term, because it only teaches children to avoid the misbehavior when the person who spanks is near. Using 1986 to 1990 data collected from interviews with the mothers of 900 children, aged 6-9, M. Strauss measured the level of a child's anti-social behavior in 1986, along with the number of times the child was spanked each week. Then he tracked both behavior and frequency of spanking over the next four years. "Of the children whose mothers did not spank, two years later their misbehavior score was better, they had less misbehavior, " Strauss said; " For those whose mother spanked once a week or twice a week, two years later, their misbehavior score was higher. And the highest of all were the kids whose mothers spanked them three or more times during the past week. They got worse". Some experts believe mild spanking actually can help children. Robert Larzelere, research director at Boy Town in Omaha, Nebraska, argues that spanking of children aged 18 months to 3 years has improved behavior (9). His research, along with that of Diana Baumrind of the University of California at Berkeley, indicates that "authoritative" parents, as opposed to permissive or authoritarian parents, who set clear rules, reason with toddlers, but who use a swat to the rear as a last resort, discipline their children best. " If a child misbehaves after time outs and a withdrawal of privileges, " Larzelere said," backing it up with an open-handed swat to the buttocks is appropriate". Physical punishment is likely to be humiliating and traumatic for children of all ages. In the LACC student survey, 63% agreed that spanking should be applied, only if the child repeats the misbehavior, and always accompanied with explanation about the reasons for spanking. Moreover, 56% believed that there are situations where a parent have no choice but to use spanking as a disciplinary measure (Appendix B, 5,6). This confirms that some people think that spanking can be used in a limited way; or in extreme circumstances, such as when it poses a danger to the child or to others. A typical example in this case is when a kid races across the street in front of a car. The slap on the butt, they believe, literally imprints on him/her the need for safety. The irony is that together with the need for safety it equally imprints the idea that a violent act is an option in the process of problem solving. Moreover, it can imprint the impression that "might makes right" and other negative by products of spanking. But above all, there is no evidence to the efficiency of such act; or its effectiveness over peaceful alternatives. Where in the world, those people got the idea that an act of violence is better than patiently explaining to the child again and again what to do (in such dangerous case) until they get it! . How can anybody morally justify an act of violence, minor as it might be, when a peaceful alternative act is available? The survey of the individuals in LACC shows that 65% agreed that there are always better alternatives for child spanking which do not include applying force or resorting to inflicting pain on the child's body. Moreover, 77% confirmed that they could imagine a situation where spanking a child, can get out of hand, or can amount to higher level of violence. 81% agreed that at times, a spanked child might repeat the same act despite running the risk of being spanked again. And yet, 56% approved of spanking as a disciplinary method (Appendix B, 18,19,20,21) The above three results raise a serious question. Given that there are always better alternatives for child spanking and if spanking a child, can get out of hand, or can amount to higher level of violence; why then, anybody would ever use it? If a spanked child might repeat the same act despite running the risk of being spanked again, doesn't this give the spanking parent a hint that spanking is not working? This confirms my belief that in rearing their children spanking parents usually use unexamined methods of discipline and patterns of rearing inherited from their parents without questioning or serious study to challenge the validity and efficiency of such methods. Parents can raise well-behaved children without spanking. Children in seven nations are growing up without hitting in homes, day care and schools. Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Austria, Finland, Italy and Cyprus do not allow hitting of children. The purpose of these laws is not to punish parents but to reduce physical abuse and to promote positive parenting. These nations have remarkably low rates of interpersonal violence compared to the United States. Children do not appear to be more "spoiled" than in this country, according to Professor Adrienne Haeuser, who studied these laws in Europe in 1981,1988, and 1991 (8). "Children are receiving more discipline since the law in Sweden was passed", said Dr. Haeuser. " Parents think twice and tend to rely more on verbal conflict resolution to manage their children. Children learn to solve problems with words, not hitting". In our country we equate spanking with discipline. A Webster's Dictionary definition of "discipline" involves training and teaching. Clearly we need more of the latter discipline. We need to pay more attention to children's behavior through training and teaching. Teaching good behavior involves explaining and reasoning, establishing rules and consequences, and praising good behavior in children. Such methods help develop a child's conscience and control. They help a child become a self- disciplined adult. The above situation in Europe gave me the idea of adapting the same situation in America with a slight change. I suggest that unlike the felony of child abuse spanking (as I defined it) should be considered a misdemeanor, but repeating the same misdemeanor more than three times should be considered as abuse and prosecuted as such. The idea of this law is mainly educational for the parents because it implants in their consciousness the negative connotation of the spanking act. By the same token, a misdemeanor would not be considered by most people as an intolerable act by the government to regulate our personal life. This, of course, is subject to the test of reality. I consider it then, a call to the appropriate authorities to adapt it in our laws. This might help keeping the spanking practices in decline until they finally disappear. Conclusion In an attempt to make the case against spanking I started by exploring few alternative-spanking definitions. I concluded that the expansion on the law definition of abuse would not have any practical advantage, and existing spanking definitions are not inclusive enough to include all aspects of spanking. The results of probing the students opinions in LACC showed that there is no one definition that will fit everybody's views on child spanking. Moreover, the results indicated that the definition of spanking is not clear and cohesive enough to satisfy every opinion and cover all factors involved. This left the spanking definition as a device used for the purposes of making a point in one's research. I devised a definition, in which I saw a clear practical advantage in dealing with changing the current statuesque in the law, since it potentially provides a comprehensive working version of spanking, and by the same token it avoids the negative results of expanding the child abuse definition. I suggested that based on the spanking definition I devised, the law makers consider spanking at home as a misdemeanor, but if repeated three times (by the same person and against the same child), it will be considered a child abuse and will be prosecuted accordingly. This I argued, can overcome the problem of the narrow child abuse definition by assigning to child spanking a practical and operational meaning. By the same token, a misdemeanor would not be as harsh as a felony, so it wouldn't be considered as overly infringing on our right to raise our children as we see fit. I further argued that, my suggestion also can have more benefits in the long run, since it implants in the people consciousness that child spanking is a wrongful act, and consequently this will help keep it on the course of decline until it finally vanishes from our society. In analyzing the data from LACC student body, I took a random sample of a one hundred students of different backgrounds, and checked their opinions on various maters relating to child spanking. In conclusion, most of the factors examined in this survey, including age, gender, marital status, financial background, and family size, seem to have an impact on the child spanking trends. But the factor that seems to be highly significant is the family history. 76% of the students in the survey reported having spanking parents, while a startling 89% of those who approved of spanking grew up in spanking families. There was no conclusive evidence of a relationship between child spanking and ethnic background or education. Here I believe that the number of subjects surveyed was not big enough to indicate a clear relationship while factors of time limitation didn't allow me the freedom to expand on it. The approval of spanking in the younger generation and the single is lower that the total average, but it is still 50% high. Although it approaches the national data it is surprisingly high. One way to explain it is that the younger generation is highly affected by their family trends in spanking. Thus, taking into account the 89% of those who approved of spanking grew up in spanking families, the high percentage of spanking approval among the younger generation becomes fairly understandable and less surprising. I concluded this paper by an attempt to build the case against spanking. I argued that corporal punishment of children at home should be banned, because it has many negative consequences. It leads to physical abuse and contributes to the cycle of child abuse; it breeds aggression and violence; and it hinders discipline more than it helps. I continued by bringing arguments and data to support my thesis. I refuted counter arguments, while referring to known authorities as well as my data from the LACC students. Then I concluded by a suggestion to the law maker to consider banning spanking at home in the same format as the one I suggested in the end of the definition section. References And Works Cited 1. CORPORAL PUNISHMENT OF CHILDREN (SPANKING)http://www.religioustolerance.org/spanking.htmCites the Bible on spanking in many places such as:Prov 13:24: "He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes (diligently)." Prov 22:15: "Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him." Prov 23:13: "Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die." Prov 23:14: "Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell (Shoel)." Prov 29:15: "The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame." 2. See above # 1 source for example of the international attention: UN Convention on the Rights of the Child Canada is a signatory to this convention. The United States has not yet taken action on it. The Convention defines a child as any "human being below the age of eighteen years unless, under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier." Article 19: "States Parties shall take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and education measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation.." 3. For more details on the situation in the Scandinavian countries See: SWEDISH PARENTS DON'T SPANK, http://www.cei.net/~rcox/haeuser.html 4. 1993 National Survey of kids in crisis and parenting, The Barna Research Group, Glendale, CA. 5. Dr Susan Farward, Toxic Parents, Bantan Books, NY,1989 , Pg. 181. 6. John Bradshaw, Healing The Shame That Binds You, Health Communications, 1988, Pg. 51. 7. Frehsee, D., Horn, W., and Bussman, K. (Eds.),1996. Violence Against Children, Berlin and NewYork: Walter de Gruyter, Pg 95. 8. Hauser, Adrienne Ahlgren. "Reaffirming Physical Punishment in Childbearing as one Root of Physical abuse". Paper delivered at the Ninth National Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect, Denver, Colorado, 1991. 9. Knight-Rider/ Tribune News Service, August 14, 1997 p. 814k0036. 10. Sears, Robert R., Moccoby, Eleanor C., and Levin, Henry. " Patterns of Child Rearing." Evanaston, Illinois: Row, Peterson and Company, 1957. 11. Shari Roan. " Spank Your Kid, Go to Jail?" LA Times, August 20 1997. Section E6. 12. Strauss, Murray A. " Discipline and Deviance: Physical Punishment of Children and Violence and Other Crime in Adulthood"', 1991, items 18, 101-123. 13. Strauss, Murray A. and Gelles, Richard J. "Physical Violence in American Families. Risk Factors and Adaptations", 1990. 14. Strauss, Murray A. and Mather Anita K. Social Change And Trends in Approval of Corporal punishment By Parents From 1968 1994, Family Research Laboratory, University of New Hampshire, Darham, NH. Appendix A Using Hypothesis Testing H0 is the initial Hypothesis, H1 is the alternative Hypothesis: H0 : P=0.49 H1 : P>0.49 Replacing P-> 0.56 and (PT)-> 0.49 Z /. P-> 0.56 /. (PT)-> 0.49 Z= 1.40028 Since at the risk level ?=0.05 the z value=1.645 & 1.40028<1.645 we accept the value 0.49to be the True value. H0 : P = 0.69 H1 : P < 0.69 Z /. P -> 0.56 /. (PT) -> 0.69 Z = -2.81085 Since at the risk level ?=0.05 the z value=-1.645 & -2.81085<-1.645 we reject the value 0.69 to be the True value. Appendix B Opinion on Spanking % Agree % Disagree % No Opinion 1.Child Spanking at home is an effective disciplinary measure. 40 53 7 2.Child Spanking at home is an effective disciplinary measure only if used sparingly or selectively as a last resort. 68 31 1 3.It is Ok if a parent spanks a child out of anger at his/her misbehavior. 8 88 4 4.Spanking should be applied, only if the child repeats the misbehavior, and always accompanied with explanation about the reasons for spanking. 63 30 7 5.I can imagine a situation where a parent have no choice but to use spanking as disciplinary measure. 57 37 6 6.A Spanking parent is a caring parent. 27 64 9 7.If parents do not use spanking they might resort to verbal or emotional abuse. 27 65 8 8.Child Spanking is an effective disciplinary measure at home and at school as well. 14 83 3 9."Spare the rod spoil the child," quoted from the Bible is always right. 26 55 19 10.Spanking should be banned by the law. 16 70 14 11.Government should not regulate spanking because only the parents have the right to choose, as they see fit, the disciplinary measures for their children. 56 33 11 12.Child Spanking teaches hardships and builds the child's character. 35 55 10 13.If children are not spanked, they grow up rotten and spoiled. 19 75 6 14.Spanking is an ineffective disciplinary measure. 35 50 15 15.Spanked children grow up to be under-achievers economically and socially. 27 55 18 16.Spanking contributes to violence in society in the long run. 45 39 16 17.Spanking gives the child negative educational messages such as "might makes right:" 46 44 10 18.There are always better alternatives for child spanking which do not include applying force or resorting to inflicting pain on the child's body . 65 26 9 19.I can imagine a situation where spanking a child, can get out of hand, or can amount to higher level of violence. 77 20 3 20.At times, a spanked child may repeat the same act despite running the risk of being spanked again. 81 15 4 21.There are situations where I would use or actively use child spanking as a disciplinary measure. 56 37 7 22.There are situations where my significant other would use or actively use child spanking as a disciplinary measure. 47 39 14 23.I would always discuss disciplinary measures with my significant other before applying them. 50 43 7 24.My parents used spanking as a disciplinary measure. 76 19 5 Appendix C Background data Age/Years Gender I Consider Myself Highest Education Ethnic Background Number of Children Family Income in thousands $ Less than 20 Male _____ Fem- ale S M D W Conservativ e Elementary White 0 Less or equal 10 20-30 Liberal High School African American 1 10-25 30-40 Religious College Hispanic 2 25-40 40-50 Non- religious University Asian 3 40-55 50-60 Atheist Armenian 4 55-70 60-70 Other 5+ 70+ 70+ Data Concerning the Definition Please express your opinion regarding the Child Spanking definition that best fits your opinion by ranking the following definitions from 1-5 : Rank By #'s 1-5 1-Highest 5-Lowest A disciplinary act done by a care-taker to a child by slapping on the butt or a whacking on t he bottom. A disciplinary act done by a caretaker to a child by slapping on the butt or the hand, or by using a tool such as a belt, stick or a whip without causing a bodily injury. A disciplinary act administered by a caretaker to a child, after been previously warned, done by slapping on the butt or the hand, or by using a tool such as a belt, stick or a whip without causing a bodily injury. The form of corporal punishment carried out by a parent or a care-taker, by the means of applying force on a any part of child body or by using a tool such as a belt, whip, or a stick; without causing a bodily injury, done as a disciplinary measure in order to condition the child to a certain desired behavior. An act by a parent or other caretaker which is intended to cause physical pain, but not injury, for purposes of correction or control. Various Opinions Concerning Spanking Please express your opinion on the following: Agree Disagree No Opinion Child Spanking at home is an effective disciplinary measure. Child Spanking at home is an effective disciplinary measure only if used sparingly or selectively as a last resort. It is Ok if a parent spanks a child out of anger at his/her misbehavior. Spanking should be applied, only if the child repeats the misbehavior, and always accompanied with explanation about the reasons for spanking. I can imagine a situation where a parent have no choice but to use spanking as disciplinary measure. A Spanking parent is a caring parent. If parents do not use spanking they might resort to verbal or emotional abuse. Child Spanking is an effective disciplinary measure at home and at school as well. "Spare the rod spoil the child," quoted from the Bible is always right. Spanking should be banned by the law. Government should not regulate spanking because only the parents have the right to choose, as they see fit, the disciplinary measures for their children. Child Spanking teaches hardships and builds the child's character. If children are not spanked, they grow up rotten and spoiled. Spanking is an ineffective disciplinary measure. Spanked children grow up to be under-achievers economically and socially. Spanking contributes to violence in society in the long run. Spanking gives the child negative educational messages such as "might makes right:" There are always better alternatives for child spanking which do not include applying force or resorting to inflicting pain on the child's body . I can imagine a situation where spanking a child, can get out of hand, or can amount to higher level of violence. At times, a spanked child may repeat the same act despite running the risk of being spanked again. There are situations where I would use or actively use child spanking as a disciplinary measure. There are situations where my significant other would use or actively use child spanking as a disciplinary measure. I would always discuss disciplinary measures with my significant other before applying them. My parents have used spanking as a disciplinary measure.