Why Is Spanking Should Not Be Outlawed

Spanking is defined as an act of slapping, especially on the buttocks as a form of corporal punishment for children. It acts as a method of redirecting a child’s behavior. Spanking should not be outlawed because reasoning and taking away privileges may often be ineffective approaches to modify a child’s behavior, especially at a younger age. Parents have the responsibility to keep their children away from grave physical danger, and verbal lectures without consequences are often ignored or forgotten. Because there are various alternatives to corporal punishment, spanking must solely be applied as the last resort of disciplining a misbehaved child. Despite being legal, spanking must not be motivated by anger, which can result in abuse. Instead, parents must clarify the reason of punishment and logically justify why something is inappropriate or wrong. Prior to spanking, various privileges can be taken away to

However, Dr. Jared Pingleton, a clinical psychologist and the director for Focus on the Family’s Counseling department, believes that “Though some contend any form of physical correction equates to child abuse, there is a giant chasm between a mild spanking properly administered out of love and an out-of-control adult venting their emotions by physically abusing their child” (Pingleton). Similarly, Christopher Robbins, the founder of a digital publishing company, Familius, which offers books on parenting, stated that “I certainly learned to not do a couple of things because I was spanked. And I do not feel I was done harm because I was spanked. My parents never spanked me prodigiously or did it hard enough that I feel they were being hurtful or mean” (Briggs). Personal testimonies of individuals that were spanked when they were little showed that spanking is effective in altering a child’s behavior when it is done reasonably and without