Currently, parents in all 50 states and school staff in 19 states,[1] are legally allowed to inflict violence on children as a form of discipline, also known as “corporal punishment.”
At
home, millions of children each year experience corporal punishment, and most
American adults think that it is an appropriate form of discipline.[2]
At
school, more than 106,000 children were physically punished at public schools
during the 2013-14 school year.[3] And black students,
boys, and disabled students are physically punished at a greater rate than
their classmates.[4]
This needs to change.
This is not a protectionist
argument. It is not based on paternalistic notions of children as
"vulnerable" or "innocent" or being "our greatest
resource" or "society's future."
We must end state-privileged
violence against children because children are people with human rights. People
of all ages have the right to be free from violence.
While this practice is
commonly known as “corporal punishment,” to even accept this phrasing is
problematic. If this was done to another adult, it would simply be assault and
battery and/or domestic violence. As the legal scholar Samantha Godwin puts it:
This phrasing… “normalizes violence against children
that would not be tolerated were it directed against adults. Referring to
violence against children as “punishment” implies that the violent act is
committed as a potentially legitimately deserved sanction for the child’s
behavior. The phrase itself is an expression that implies victim blaming; it
presumes the potential or actual lawfulness of the perpetrator. To speak of
violence against children as “corporal punishment” begs the question of whether
such violence is legitimate by presuming that some private violence is
legitimate punishment.”[5]
What is commonly known as
“corporal punishment” is a state-privileged battery against young people, and we
should recognize this injustice. So-called “corporal punishment” advances no
compelling state interest and only serves to oppress children.[6]
While I am not aware of constitutional challenges to corporal punishment in the home, corporal punishment in schools has been upheld under federal law. In 1977, in the infamous case Ingraham v. Wright, the US Supreme Court found that the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment, did not apply to school students, and that teachers could punish children without parental permission.[7] Many scholars agree that this was a travesty of a decision that needs to be overturned.[8]
Eliminating state-privileged violence against children would be a huge step forward in recognizing the rights of children to bodily autonomy and safety. It would also help to prevent child abuse and change the attitudes of parents towards their children. In 2018, the majority of perpetrators of child abuse and neglect (77.5 percent) in the U.S. were parents of their victims.[9] Continuing to give parents the legal privilege to batter their children only worsens this problem.
Moreover, the U.S. lags behind many other
countries on this issue. Sweden banned all forms of violence against children
in 1979. Currently, there are 60 countries that have banned corporal punishment
in the home, and 132 countries that have banned it in schools.[10]
There is conclusive evidence
that corporal punishment is harmful to children and provides no real benefits.[11]
The World Health Organization (WHO) has recognized over 200 studies which associate
corporal punishment with a wide range of negative health, developmental and
behavioral outcomes for children that can follow them into adulthood.[12]
These include, but are not limited to, death and serious physical injury,
mental and indirect physical harm, impaired cognitive development, increased
aggression, violent and antisocial behavior and severely damaged parent-child
relationships.[13]
And eliminating corporal
punishment has proven benefits on a societal scale. One study looked at 88
different countries and found that instituting a national “prohibition of
corporal punishment is associated with less youth violence.”[14]
However, such evidence is
not needed in order to know that the practice of corporal punishment must be ended.
It is violence against children, and it violates children’s rights to human
dignity and bodily integrity. It is also incompatible with liberal notions of
equal protection under the law.
Many parents object to
eliminating corporal punishment on the grounds that it would lead to the
dissolution of the family or inability to “control” children. But the end of
husbands’ legal privilege to beat and rape their wives didn’t result in the
destruction of the family; there is no reason why ending state privileged
parental battery of children would lead to a different outcome. Moreover, the
number of parents and teachers that discipline children without using physical
violence show how misguided these objections are.
Of course, challenges will
remain even after corporal punishment is formally made illegal. There must also
be meaningful enforcement and a change in cultural attitudes surrounding
violence against children. However, formally eliminating state-privileged battery
of children is an important starting point. To this end, many organizations
have been working to end legally privileged violence against children,
including dozens of groups in the U.S.[15]
Still, the laws remain on the books and millions of children continue to
experience battery as a form of punishment. There is much work to be done.
To take action, you can check to see
if your local school board has a ban on corporal punishment. If not, advocate
for one. You can also contact local elected officials and ask them to support a
ban on corporal punishment in public schools in your state and ask them to
support a ban on corporal punishment by parents. If you are a parent, you can
commit to nonviolent parenting strategies and learn more about the alternatives.
And finally, we can all engage in conversations to build awareness around the
issue of state-privileged violence against children.
[1] Gershoff, E. T., & Font, S. A. (2016). Corporal
Punishment in U.S. Public Schools: Prevalence, Disparities in Use, and Status
in State and Federal Policy. Social policy report, 30,
1.; See also https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/13/us/corporal-punishment-school-tennessee.html
[2]
http://www.endcorporalpunishment.org/wp-content/uploads/country-reports/USA.pdf
(citing: Ipsos Poll Conducted for Reuters: Corporal Punishment Topline (2014)).
[3]
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/13/us/corporal-punishment-school-tennessee.html
(Citing
the latest data available from the Education
Department’s Office for Civil Rights).
[4]
https://www.gao.gov/assets/700/690828.pdf
[5] Godwin, S. (2011). Children's oppression, rights, and
liberation. Nw. Interdisc. L. Rev., 4, 247, 289.
[6] Godwin, S. (2011). Children's oppression, rights, and
liberation. Nw. Interdisc. L. Rev., 4, 247.
[7] Ingraham v Wright, 430 U.S. 651 (1977)
[8] See, e.g., Woodhouse, B. B. (2010). Hidden in plain
sight: The tragedy of children's rights from Ben Franklin to Lionel Tate (Vol.
8). Princeton University Press.
[9] Child Welfare Information Gateway.
(2020). Child maltreatment 2018: Summary of key findings. Washington, DC: U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and
Families, Children's Bureau. Available at https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubPDFs/canstats.pdf.
[10]
https://endcorporalpunishment.org/countdown/
[11] See Gershoff, E. T., & Bitensky, S. H. (2007). The case
against corporal punishment of children: Converging evidence from social
science research and international human rights law and implications for US
public policy. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 13(4),
231. See also Godsoe, C. (2017). Redefining parental rights: The case of
corporal punishment. Const. Comment., 32, 281.
[12] https://www.who.int/topics/violence/Global-Initiative-to-End-All-Corporal-Punishment-of-Children-GAP2-violence.pdf (citing Global Initiative to End
All Corporal Punishment of Children (2015), Corporal punishment of children:
review of research on its impact and associations, Working paper, London:
Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children).
[13] Id.
[14] Elgar FJ, Donnelly PD, Michaelson V,
et al. Corporal punishment bans and physical fighting in adolescents: an
ecological study of 88 countries. BMJ Open 2018.
[15] For a list of these groups, see: https://www.endhitting.org/partnering-organizations
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