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Is corporal punishment - beating, slapping,
spanking - a good way to make children behave?
Physical Punishment: Ideas
Arguments against using corporal (physical) punishment:
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Can cause permanent, lifelong damage, such as poor school performance, juvenile delinquency (misbehavior as a teenager), domestic violence, etc.
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Can cause physical injury to children, such as broken bones, bruises
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Is used more against children who live in poverty, with disabilities, or who are from minorities
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Teaches children that force is an acceptable way of making others do something, that it is acceptable to hit someone smaller or weaker when you are angry
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Damages the relationship between children and the parents
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Shows an emotional lack of control or resources on the part of the parent
Arguments for using corporal (physical) punishment:
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It is immediate. The child can see the result of what he did and the relationship between the wrongdoing and the punishment.
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Other punishments can be even more psychologically damaging or humiliating
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It is effective and easily remembered by the child. It is uncomplicated. Children can understand physical punishment easily.
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Children cannot always understand punishment which is removed from the time or the scene of what they did wrong.
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Parents love their children. They have no intention of hurting them. They are punishing them for a misdeed, not injuring them physically.
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We live a violent world. We cannot pretend that violence does not exist.
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