Spanking Child Abuse

Those who are in support of spanking claim that spanking is not abusive. However, spanking a child can easily become abusive if the caregiver uses more force, an object, and or spanking becomes more frequent. Physical abuse is under the umbrella of child maltreatment. In some states child maltreatment, in regards to spanking, is defined as “spanking even a very young child is not considered to be child abuse unless a physical mark is left on the child” (Lee, Gorgan-Kaylor, & Berger, 2014). This is where the fine line of spanking and physical abuse meet, leaving a visible or physical mark or not. When caregivers spank as a means of discipline it is usually used for the intention to correct an unpleasant behavior. The use of a light “tap” is

Family coercion theory explains that when spanking occurs in a child’s early years the spanking or caregivers physical discipline becomes escalated over time when attuning to their child’s negative behavior. When children express negative behaviors it maximizes the risk of physical abuse to occur. Caregivers report that the cause of the abuse began with what was thought of as “normal” child discipline due to the misbehavior from the child (Lee, Gorgan-Kaylor, & Berger, 2014). Sadly the link between spanking and parental child abuse is shockingly similar. Both include the acts of hitting and the intentions to hurt or startle the children. If the amount of children who receive spanking were to decrease, there would also be a decrease in the reports of parental physical

“The United Nations has said unequivocally that ‘corporal punishment and other cruel or degrading forms of punishment are forms of violence’” (Gershoff, 2013). Article 19 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child begins to be violated when spanking a child occurs. Article 19 mentions that it protects children against any type of mental or physical violence. Almost all other countries, except for the United States, Somalia, and South Sudan, have abolished the use of corporal punishment toward children. Among those countries who have banned the use of spanking entirely is Europe. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has banned all of Europe from corporal punishment being used on children by teachers and or caregivers (Gershoff, 2013). However, in America there have been some organizations that try to abolish spanking from households by expressing to the general public the concerns and negative effects spanking leads