Corporal punishment

Corporal punishment is the deliberate infliction of pain intended as correction or punishment. Historically speaking most punishments, whether in judicial, domestic or educational settings were corporal in basis. The practice is generally held to differ from torture in that it is applied for disciplinary reasons and is therefore intended to be limited, rather than intended to totally destroy the will of the victim. Severe or prolonged forms of corporal punishment are, however, more or less indistinguishable from torture.

Modern usage

Although the corporal punishment of adults has now been abandoned by many countries, it is still retained as a judicial sanction in some parts of the world. Several societies retain widespread use of judicial corporal punishment, including Singapore and Malaysia. The Singaporean practice of caning became much discussed in the U.S. in 1994 when American teenager Michael P. Fay was sentenced to such punishment for an offence of car vandalism. In Singapore, male violent offenders and rapists are typically sentenced to caning in addition to a prison term.

Related Topics:
Singapore - Malaysia - Caning - Michael P. Fay

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Corporal punishment is also dictated as a punishment in traditional Islamic Sharia law, and applied in countries like Saudi Arabia.

Related Topics:
Islamic - Sharia - Saudi Arabia

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Corporal punishment of children

Many educators use a milder form of corporal punishment called "spanking", usually slapping their child's buttocks with the palm of their hand; alternatively, they may administer a single smack on the hand with their own hand. Others punish their children with a switch, belt, or a paddle, although this practice is less common than in years past.

Related Topics:
Spanking - Smack on the hand - Switch - Belt - Paddle

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Opinions on corporal punishment of children are varied. Whilst practice is accepted and embraced in many countries, it is also illegal in a number of others. There is pressure in some countries, including the United Kingdom, to have any form of corporal punishment of children made illegal and treated as child abuse. Sweden, Finland, Norway, Austria, Cyprus, Denmark, Latvia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Germany, Israel, Iceland, Romania, Ukraine and Hungary have banned the corporal punishment of children entirely. In some states of the USA, paddling of children is still allowed. Recently, the US state of Massachusetts has proposed a bill banning all forms of corporal punishment on minors under 18.

Related Topics:
United Kingdom - Child abuse - Sweden - Finland - Norway - Austria - Cyprus - Denmark - Latvia - Croatia - Bulgaria - Germany - Israel - Iceland - Romania - Ukraine - Hungary - USA - Paddling - Massachusetts

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Although China and Taiwan have made corporal punishment against children illegal in the school system, it is still widely practiced. In most part of Confucian East Asia (including China, Taiwan, Japan and Korea), it is legal to punish one's own child using physical pain. Even in parts of East Asia which are more Westernized (including Singapore and Hong Kong), punishing one's own child with corporal punishment is still either legal, only discouraged, or illegal but without active enforcement of the relevant laws. Culturally, people in the region generally believe a minimal amount of corporal punishment against their own children is appropriate and necessary. And thus such practice is tolerated by the society as a whole.

Related Topics:
China - Taiwan - Confucian - Japan - Korea - Singapore - Hong Kong

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There is resistance, particularly from conservatives, against making illegal the corporal punishment of children by their parents or guardians. In 2004, the United States declined to become a signatory of the United Nations's "Rights of the Child" because of its sanctions on parental discipline, citing the tradition of parental authority in that country and of privacy in family decision-making.

Related Topics:
2004 - United Nations

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Most countries have banned the use of corporal punishment in schools, beginning with Poland in 1783. The practice is still used in schools in some parts of the Unites States, though it is banned in others.

Related Topics:
Poland - 1783

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Controversy

There is a strikingly greater input of contributions pro or contra under the equivalent heading in the article on Spanking - apparently most are more concerned with the generally temporary reddening of juvenile buns in schools and at home then with the often graver wounds inflicted on young and old(er) in the very name of justice

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Arguments pro and contra - or an unbiased exercise

A minority (in the West and part of the third world) argue that corporal punishment is a quick and effective method and less cruel than long-term incarceration; they think that it should be re-considered in the West as an alternative to prison; some even want corporal punishment to replace fines for such minor offences as graffiti.

Related Topics:
Incarceration - Prison - Fine

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Claimed advantages include easier reintegration in society (generally wounds heal quickly, prison often ruins a whole family's life), greater deterrence (if this is invoked for public administration and against anonymity, reintegration may be the price) and lesser recidive, avoiding of costs to society; they also invoke arguments of authority such as a rather literal reading of the bible or simply 'traditional means to defend traditional values'.

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The majority of westerners, at least since the late 20th century, considers judicial corporal punishment a relic of a barbaric past, usually associated with dictatorships, police states, and fundamentalist regimes as Iran or Saudi Arabia. Remarkably many opponents do however accept the ultimate physical punishment: the death penalty, which is retained by more nations.

Related Topics:
Relic - Barbaric - Dictatorship - Police state - Fundamentalist - Iran - Saudi Arabia - Death penalty

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Proponents of the corporal punishment of children, whilst accepting that excessive physical punishment amounts to child abuse, argue that corporal punishment, properly administered, can be the most effective form of discipline for unruly children, and even a form of reassuring control for some young adolescents. Polls consistently show that the overwhelming majority of Americans believe that corporal punishment is sometimes necessary. There is also the argument that without recourse to the short, sharp smack parents may use forms of emotional violence that are actually more abusive.

Related Topics:
Child abuse - Emotional violence

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Opponents argue that any form of violence is by definition abusive. It is also pointed out that much experience from psychology research indicates that usage of corporal punishment results in destruction of trust bonds between parents and children, who can grow resentful, shy, insecure, or violent. Corporal punishment is also claimed by some researchers to work against its objective (normally obedience), since children will not voluntarily obey an adult they do not trust, and will have to be regularly coerced; it could therefore be speculated whether parents are beating their children because they are disobedient, or whether they are disobedient because they are being beaten. However, anti-spanking researcher Elizabeth Gershoff dissented from this view in a 2002 study, reporting that use of corporal punishment did correlate positively with compliance in children (while maintaining that the research reinforced the other anti-spanking arguments.)

Related Topics:
Psychology - Obedience

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Rarely heard is a third way of thinking: if one postulates that a violent punishment may be the a lesser evil then certain wrongs it is designed to reduce significantly, is it possible, and if so under which conditions, to make the system just and adequate? Yet such an exercise could help to form a more considered opinion, and is needed anyhow as long as there are spheres of use of corporal punishment.

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Corporal punishment, fetishism, and BDSM

Corporal punishment is sometimes fetishized, and is the basis of a number of paraphilias, most notably erotic spanking.

Related Topics:
Fetishized - Paraphilia - Erotic spanking

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The techniques and rituals of corporal punishment are often included in BDSM activities; see impact play. All that is outside our article, since it is voluntary, not coercion.

Related Topics:
BDSM - Impact play

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