To Spank or Not to Spank: What the Experts Say

“There never was a time when a major social problem was solved by hitting a child. And there never will be such a time… For centuries, adults have hurt children and lied about it, and other adults have heard those lies and then simply rejected…we must start blaming where it belongs.” -VS. Everett Koop, MD, Sc.D.

Desmond M. Tutu, Archbishop Emeritus, Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children, 2006.

“No violence against children is justifiable; all violence against children is preventable.” This is the key message of the Report of the Independent Expert Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, Appointed by the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, Study of the UN Secretary General, 2003. http://www.nospank.net/globalreport.pdf

“The claim that light punishment (slapping or slapping) has no detrimental effect is still very widespread because we received this message very early from our parents that they had taken it from their parents. Unfortunately, the main damage it causes is precisely the wide spread of this conviction. The result is that each successive generation is subject to the tragic effects of the so-called ‘physical correction’. … Physical cruelty and emotional humiliation not only leave their marks on children, but also inflict a disastrous mark on the future of our society. Therefore, information on the effects of “well-intentioned hitting” should be an integral part of pregnancy and parenting counseling courses.” -Alice Miller, “Every Hit Is a Humiliation,” 1998. http:// www.nospank.net/miller3.htm

Miller, Alice. The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1981.

Miller, Alice. For Your Own Good: The Hidden Cruelty in Parenting and the Roots of Violence. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Girous, 1983; The Noday Press, 1990.

Miller, Alice. You will not notice – the betrayal of the child by society. New York: Penguin Books USA Inc., 1984.

Miller, Alice. Banished knowledge. New York: Doubleday, 1990.

Miller, Alice. The key intact. New York: Doubleday, 1990

Miller, Alice. Breaking the Wall of Silence. New York: Penguin Books USA Inc., 1991.

“A society that beats children little or not at all is likely to result in fewer alienated, depressed or suicidal people, and fewer violent marriages. The potential benefits to society as a whole are equally great. These include lower crime rates, especially for violent crime; increased economic productivity; and less money spent on controlling or treating crime and mental illness… A society that educates children in loving, humane, non-violent methods is likely to be less violent, healthier and richer.”

-Murray Straus, co-director of the Family Research Laboratory at the University of New Hampshire. From “A Society Without Corporal Punishment”. http://www.nospank.net/straus5.htm

“The adult flagellant fantasy, in short, always derives from the infantile one. As with all sexual perversions, we are dealing with a variety of arrested development… which puberty and subsequent experience have failed to dislodge… We need to examine its roots in childhood…” -Ian Gibson, The English Vice, 1979

“Frequent spanking can also have a negative impact on sexual development. Due to the proximity of the sexual organs, a child may become sexually aroused when spanked. Or he may enjoy the reconciliations that follow punishment so much that he will seek to suffer.” as a necessary prelude to love. There are many adult couples who seem to need a good fight before a good night.” -Dr. Haim G. Ginott, child psychologist, Between Parent and Child, 1966.

“Being struck sexually excites boys because it is an intense arousal of the erogenous zones of the skin of the buttocks and of the muscles beneath the skin…” -Otto Fenickel, MD The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis, 1945.

“Most positive social changes around the world have followed massive improvements in the way children are treated.” -Robin Grille, author of Parenting for a Peaceful World, 2005.

“Children should never receive less protection than adults… [we must] end the adult justification of violence against children, whether accepted as ‘tradition’ or disguised as ‘discipline’.” -Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, member of the UN Sub-Commission on the promotion and protection of human rights, Geneva, 2006.

“I have never accepted the ‘lose the stick and spoil the child’ principle…I am convinced that violent parents produce violent children…Children don’t need to be beaten. They need love and encouragement. look with respect instead of fear. Above all, they need the example.” -Gordon B. Hinckley, President, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, October 1994 General Conference.

“Any form of corporal punishment or ‘spanking’ is a violent attack on the integrity of another human being. The effect stays with the victim forever and becomes an unrelenting part of their personality: massive frustration resulting in hostility that will seek expression in later life in violent acts toward others. The sooner we understand that love and gentleness are the only kinds of behavior required toward children, the better. The child, especially, learns to become the kind of human being that he or she has. This needs to be fully understood by all caregivers.” -Ashley Montagu, anthropologist, 1989. Extract from personal communication. http://www.nospank.net/montagu.htm

“Corporal punishment of children actually interferes with the learning process and with their optimal development as socially responsible adults. We believe it is important that public health workers, teachers, and others concerned about the emotional and physical health of children children and youth support the adoption of alternative methods for achieving self-control and responsible behavior in children and adolescents.” -Daniel F. Whiteside, MD, Assistant Surgeon General, Department of Health and Human Services, Administration of President Ronald Reagan, 1990 .

“When our Founding Fathers wrote into the basic law of our land the protection against cruel and unusual punishment for all, including dissidents and criminals, they were not convinced by the evidence, scientific or otherwise, that such punishments do not work. . They added the amendment because of ethical considerations. They valued the climate of freedom more than the security of ruling by force over a unanimous population. Over the years, these proud hopes have slowly crept closer to reality. Except in the case of children. Which brings us back to our original question: How is it possible to circumvent standard ethics for certain groups of people?” -Adah Maurer, “Psychodynamics of the Punisher”, Watman Educational Services, 1974. See http://www.nospank.net/maurer2.htm

“Punitive measures, whether administered by police, teachers, spouses, or parents, have well-known standard effects: 1) escape: education has its own name for it: truancy, 2) fight back: school vandalism.” schools and attacks on teachers, 3) apathy: a sullen withdrawal that does nothing. The more violent the punishment, the more serious the by-products.” -BF Skinner, Ph.D., author, Professor of Psychology, Harvard. Extract from personal communication, 1983.

“Corporal punishment trains children to accept and tolerate aggression. It always figures prominently in the roots of adolescent and adult aggressiveness, especially in those manifestations that take an antisocial form such as delinquency and criminality.”
-Philip Greven, Professor of History, Rutgers University. Excerpt from PART IV CONSEQUENCES, subheading: “Aggression and Delinquency”, in Spare the Child: The Religious Roots of Punishment and the Psychological Impact of Physical Abuse, 1990 p.193) http://nospank.net/greven.htm

“I have always been an advocate for the complete abolition of corporal punishment and I believe that the connection to pornography that is so targeted is rooted in our tradition of beating children.” -Gordon Moyes, DD, Pastor, United Church, Superintendent of Wesley Central Mission, Sydney, Australia. Extract from personal communication, 1980.

“The much-touted ‘biblical argument’ in support of corporal punishment rests on the text evidence of a few isolated passages from Proverbs. Using the same method of selective reading of Scripture, the Bible could also be cited as an authority for the practice of slavery, adultery, polygamy, incest, suppression of women, execution of people who eat pork and infanticide.The brutal and vindictive practice of corporal punishment cannot be reconciled with the main themes of the New Testament that teach love and forgiveness and respect for the sacredness and dignity of children–and who overwhelmingly reject violence and retribution as a means of solving human problems. Would Jesus ever hit a child? NEVER! -Reverend Thomas E. Sagendorf , retired United Methodist clergyman), Hamilton, Ind. 2006.

“Researchers have also found that children who are spanked show higher rates of childhood aggression and delinquency than those who are not spanked. As adults, they are more prone to depression, feelings of alienation, use of violence toward spouse and lower economic status. and professional achievement. None of this is what we want for our children.” Alvin Poussaint, MD, Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School. From “Spanking Strikes Out”, 1999. http://nospank.net/psnt.htm

“Inflicting pain or discomfort, no matter how minor, is not a desirable method of communicating with children.” -American Medical Association, House of Delegates, 1985.

“As long as the child is educated not by love, but by fear, humanity will live not by justice, but by force. As long as the child is governed by the threat of the educator and by the rod of the father, while humanity Will it be dominated by the police club, by the fear of jail, and by the panic of invasion by armies and navies? -Boris Sidis, from “A Lecture on the Abuse of the Fear Instinct in Early Education” in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 1919. http://nospank.net/sidis.htm

“Mental discipline creates an enslaving temperament…Beating them, and all other types of corporal and menial punishment, are not the proper discipline to be used in the education of those we wish to be wise, good, resourceful men.” -John Locke, 1632-1704, “Some Thoughts on Education”, 1692.

“Do not reprimand the student hastily, for that will lull his wits and discourage his diligence, but [ad]admonish him gently, which will make him willing to make amends and happy to go forward with love and hope of learning… Let the teacher say, ‘You do well here.’ Because I assure you that there is no such whetstone to sharpen good wit and encourage love of learning as its praise… In my opinion, love is more suitable than fear, meekness better than beating, to educate correctly to a child in learning. -Roger Ascham, Tutor to Queen Elizabeth I, from The Scholemaster [Schoolmaster]published in 1570.

“Children should be induced into honorable practices through encouragement and reasoning, and certainly not through beatings and abuse.” -Plutarch, circa 46-120 AD, “The Education of Children”, vol. I, Moralia, Ancient Greece.

“It is a disgusting and servile treatment…When children are beaten, pain or fear often results in them not being pleasant to talk about and subsequently likely to be a source of embarrassment, embarrassing embarrassment and it depresses the mind. and leads the child to shun daylight and hate light… I am not going to spend any more time on this matter. We know enough about it.” -Quintilian, circa 40-118 AD, Institutes of Oratory, Ancient Rome