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Essay on Effects of Corporal Punishment on Children

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When a man is unpleased with something his spouse says or does and he hits her, our society labels it as abuse. If a mother hits her child our society labels it as spanking. Whichever terminology is used to help define corporal punishment, it all means the same. The very idea of physical discipline is based on an adult using his or her larger physique and power to intimidate and force someone much smaller and weaker into a state of compliance (Rathis, 2007). In the western culture, they publically frown at people who use their physical power to dominate someone smaller, yet when it comes to their children they take a pass, turn their heads, and call it spanking (Ray, 2008). It is hard to understand why society continues to argue the …show more content…

It is just as bad to spank a child because it causes them to want to use force to solve their own problems. Hitting a child is no different than hitting someone else. Parenting Magazine says "hitting a child doesn’t teach them anything but to have a 'might makes a right' attitude towards others" (Kuttner, 1988). This means that using spanking as a disciplinary method only teaches them that hitting someone when they do something wrong is the right thing to do. Another magazine that deals with parenting issues basically says the same thing about physical punishment. "We do not say to our children (most of us, anyway), 'Hitting is right' or 'Hitting is a good thing to do.' We do not really believe that it is a good thing to hit people. Most of us are not 'in favor' of hitting children. However, many of us (most of us, actually) behave as if it is a good thing to do" says Straus (2002). The main problem is that parents are not informed well enough on the issue that spanking is bad. The last quote shows that parents are totally unaware that they are even hurting their child because the parents "behave as if it is a good thing to do.
Additionally, “Studies of whole prisons populations all over the Western world show that criminals who used violence on their victims almost invariably had violence used against them when they were children" (McCord, J., & Ensminger, M. 1997).This also ties back to hitting being a way to solve problems, but in these circumstances

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