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The Pros And Cons Of Spanking

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Spanking, also referred to as corporal punishment, is defined as: an act of slapping, especially on the buttocks as a punishment for children. According to Alvin Poussaint, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry, at Harvard Medical School, “Researchers have found that children who are spanked show higher rates of aggression and delinquency in childhood than those who were not spanked. As adults, they are more prone to depression, feelings of alienation, use of violence toward a spouse, and lower economic and professional achievement. None of this is what we want for our children” (Poussaint 17). Corporal punishment in U.S. homes is lawful in all 50 states, and 19 of those states still allow spanking in schools, which causes a multitude of issues. In likeness, many other countries have made spanking illegal because it engenders negative physical, emotional, and cognitive effects on children; there are many effective and harmless alternatives to corporal punishment.
In the light of corporal punishment being made illegal in other countries, there are quite a few reasonable answers for this. Based off of the Harvard Medical School article, The Spanking Debate, states that some parents think using physical force to discipline children leads to abuse. Others regard an occasional smack or stinging slap is normal and necessary part of child rearing. The author Gershoff defines corporal punishment as a physical force pain, but not injured in order to control child behavior. Studies show that

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