Spank Children Research Paper

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A common form of punishment of a child is corporal punishment in the form of spanking. Spanking is defined as slapping that results in physical pain, but no damage. Many people believe that spanking should be banned and replaced with verbal punishment due to the apparent negative effects of spanking. What these people fail to realize is that parents should simply have limited rights to spank their child. Despite the apparent negative effects of corporal punishment, limited corporal punishment, in the form of spanking, helps children develop good behavior early and can be more effective than verbal punishment. Many people argue that spanking creates more problems for both the parents and the child. Two thirds of child abuse cases were found …show more content…

One reason is that the parents would simply have the right to reasonably spank their child, and not be forced to do so. The law in all states in The United States states that physical punishment is legal so long as the punishment does not result in physical injury (Benjet & Kazdin). While the interviews with abusive parents show that most abuse cases start as punishment, a slap on the wrist and a kick to the chin should be easily differentiated by parents so as not to cause the child injury (Wardrop). If a parent deliberately causes their child injury through punishment, then he or she is a bad parent and should be punished to the fullest extent of the law. Another reason parents should have the right to spank their child is that children spanked up until the age of six were found to have done better in school and have no more negative traits than those who have never been spanked (Wardrop). This disproves the argument that spanked children do not behave when their parents are not present. Additionally, spanking has been found to have no more negative effects on children than verbal punishment (Benjet & Kazdin). Finally, previous attempts to outlaw corporal punishment have failed, and have resulted in reasonable corporal punishment to still be legal in both Britain and The United States. This is likely due to spanking having fast effects, and positive academic effects if used correctly. The positive effects of spanking seem to outweigh the apparent negative

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