Spanking

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This article is about the use of spanking as discipline. For spanking as erotic activity, see erotic spanking; for punishment as an erotic activity, see BDSM.

Political cartoon from 1860 depicting Stephen A. Douglas receiving a traditional “over-the-knee” spanking from Columbia as Uncle Sam looks on approvingly.

Spanking (or smacking) is the most commonly-used form of corporal punishment, consisting of one or more sharp smacks applied on the buttocks.

An abundance of research shows that the spanking of children is both ineffective and harmful. It increases aggression (perhaps because the child learns that hitting other people is an appropriate way to deal with stress), anxiety, depression, and antisocial behavior. It also makes children less obedient and reduces gray matter in the brain (jeopardizing cognitive abilities).

Spanking may be rewarding to parents and caregivers because it temporarily stops misbehavior and may release pent-up anger. However, children often repeat the behavior they were punished for within 10 minutes. Spanking becomes less effective over time, which may lead some parents to escalate to more violent discipline.

Numerous medical societies, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, firmly recommend against spanking. Spanking children is illegal in some countries.

Methods

Spanking involves striking the buttocks, usually as a physical punishment. An open hand or a tool (spoon, belt, sandal, etc.) may be used. The goal is to stop the person (usually a child) from repeating a behavior that the adult dislikes.

An adult might lay a child stomach-down across their lap so they can hit them. The hard swats in quick succession cause pain. Hitting a standing child could result in accidental injury to the back or kidneys.

An adult could spank someone over a diaper, clothing, underwear, or bare bottom. This depends on how much pain or humiliation the adult wishes to inflict and on who is watching. The removal of clothing may make the spanked person feel humiliated or helpless.

Guidance

Many health organizations recommend against spanking.

Some specialists say that if a parent insists on spanking, it should not be done in anger and it should be only used as a last resort. It should be treated as logical and fair, rather than being a spontaneous or frustration-fueled decision. The child should understand why they are being spanked. Some recommend explaining why the spanking is happening before it happens.

Some experts recommend against comforting a child after a spanking, since this may confuse them. They may even think that tolerating being hit caused them to earn affection.

However, many parents who spank do not follow basic guidelines.

Spanking in child discipline

Boys typically get spanked more than girls do. In the United States, toddlers get spanked the most. Abusive parents, parents who had adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) (e.g. experiencing child abuse), and stressed parents are more likely to spank their children. Corporal punishment is also associated with intimate partner violence.

A 2019 meta-analysis found that parent education programs have only small improvements in reducing spanking behavior. Teaching caregivers not to spank remains an ongoing challenge for experts.

Efficacy

Spanking causes an immediate, but only short, stop of a child's misbehavior. A preliminary study of corporal punishment at home found that in 73% of incidents, a child who was hit for misbehaving went back to doing it again within 10 minutes.

Children who are spanked tend to learn to avoid getting caught, rather than to avoid misbehaving. They are less likely to internalize values like empathy, altruism, and resistance to temptation. Spanking also erodes the parent-child bond.

Effects

Evidence on the effects of spanking is abundant. Spanking and other forms of corporal punishment create strong negative feelings in children. Research has found long-term effects across cultures and with adjustment for confounding factors (e.g. whether the children are abused):

• Aggression (Children who are hit are more likely to say that hitting is a way to solve interpersonal conflicts.)
• Defiant and antisocial behavior
• Impulsivity and disruptive behavior
• Feelings of hopelessness
• Anxiety disorders, major depression and other mood disorders, personality disorders (especially cluster B), and other psychiatric conditions
• Belief that others will be cruel to them
• Brain differences: hyperactive threat response in the brain and an increased response to errors while having a blunted response to rewards
• Reduced gray matter in the brain, including in areas related to IQ
• Falling behind their peers in cognitive development over time
• Poorer social and emotional development
• Physical health ailments
• Delinquency

The child's behavior and attitude tends to deteriorate over time relative to children who are not spanked.

In adulthood, people who were spanked are more likely to experience:

• Alcoholism and drug abuse, perhaps due to issues with dopamine in the brain
• Suicide attempts
• Domestic abuse perpetration and violence towards their families

A meta-analysis of around 160,000 children across 50 years found only negative effects. Researcher Elizabeth Gershoff added, "People often ask: Why didn't you look for positive aspects? My answer is: We did, and there were none. We see consistently that the more children are spanked, the more behavioral problems they have in the years ahead."

Brains and emotional difficulties of children who were spanked show similarities to those of children who were abused. Some researchers suggest that spanking be considered an adverse childhood experience (ACE).

A study of boys at risk for antisocial behavior found that when parents reduced harsh discipline, the children became less aggressive. A trial to reduce difficult behavior in children trained parents in over 500 families to reduce physical punishment; there was a parallel reduction of difficult behavior.

Spanking at home

Studies show that parents who spank tend to do so inconsistently, hitting their children more often when feeling stressed.

Many cases of documented physical abuse against children began with disciplinary spankings.

Spanking at school

Over 100 countries have banned corporal punishment in schools. Spanking at school is illegal in the majority of US states. In states where it's legal, black and disabled children are hit more than other students.

In some schools, spanking is allowed as a means of disciplining students. Such schools often allow elementary students (ages 6–11), intermediate students (ages 12–13), and high school students (ages 14 –18) to be so disciplined. However, schools or school districts usually specify the circumstances under which spankings may be administered and which personnel may administer them.

World Corporal Punishment Research[1] has compiled "Regulations of individual schools or school districts" throughout the nation, state by state, and internationally, "with external links to present-day school handbooks" that specify the circumstances and personnel who are authorized to administer spankings. Spanking is still permitted in 22 U.S. states, and only two of those 22 states, Ohio and Utah, require schools to honor parental requests not to use corporal punishment.

Circumstances

Spankings are usually used as a last resort, after previous, alternative methods of discipline have been unsuccessful. Even then, students are often allowed to elect an alternative punishment if they prefer to do so. In some cases, however, spankings are mandated, and no alternative is provided. Spankings are usually delivered with a paddle, with a predetermined number (often three) to the child's buttocks. Spankings are given in private so as to protect the student's privacy.

Authorized personnel

Usually, the principal delivers the spanking. In some cases, a teacher is also permitted to spank a student. Parents may be permitted to spank their children at school. When school officials spank a child, a witness must be present.

Controversy over spanking children

Spanking — like corporal punishment in general — is a hotly debated social issue. Questions involved include:

• Which is more important: the privacy of parents who want to spank their children, or the right of children not to be hit?
• Where is the line between physical discipline and abuse?
• Can parents modify spanking to make it less harmful?
• Are parents willing to value the large body of evidence over their personal preferences and opinions?

Experts question why this debate still carries on now that there are numerous robust studies proving a broad range of harms. They recommend moving forward to focus on reducing spanking and promoting child wellbeing.

Arguments for spanking

Proponents of spanking may question the research showing harms of spanking. They may also cite religious beliefs, beliefs about personal freedom, and anecdotal evidence.

Proponents of spanking suggest that the connection between spanking and aggression might be that the "naughty" aggressive kids get spanked more. This is known as the "child effects" hypothesis. However, research suggests otherwise.

• A study of over 2,500 toddlers found that child aggression did not predict spanking.
• A study of over 3,000 preschoolers found that increased spanking from ages 1-3 led to increased aggression at ages 3-5, above initial levels of aggression; maternal warmth did not help reduce the effects.
• A study of over 11,000 children associated spanking with increased externalizing "problem behavior," which is then associated with increased spanking. A later study found the same results. This suggests a vicious cycle of increased spanking and increased child misbehavior.

Proponents of spanking may use anecdotal evidence, such as "I was spanked and I turned out fine." It is common for parents, including those who were abused in childhood, to believe the way they were disciplined as children was acceptable.

Some parents may claim that spanking bans restrict their personal freedoms. They believe their rights as adults to discipline their children supersede the right of a child to not be hit.

Some advocates for spanking come from a behaviorist point of view, and argue that spanking is a form of operant conditioning. A child may associate certain behaviors with feeling hurt and humiliated by spanking, and thus they may avoid this behavior. However, B.F. Skinner himself warned that someone "who has been punished is not thereby simply less inclined to behave in a given way; at best, he learns how to avoid punishment" and that the punished may resume as soon as the risk of punishment goes away.

Advocates of spanking tend to be suspicious of research that reports on harms of spanking.

Religious rights advocates of spanking refer to Bible verses mentioning "the rod", and assert that spanking is therefore an acceptable punishment from a Christian moral or religious point of view. Some attribute the quotation "spare the rod and spoil the child" to the Bible; in fact, it comes from a bawdy poem entitled "Hudibras" by Samuel Butler. The Bible verse itself reads, "He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him. Proverbs 13:24 (NIV)". A later verse also advises, "Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish him with the rod, he will not die. Punish him with the rod and save his soul from death. Proverbs 23:13-14 (NIV)".

A precis on the philosophical principles of the use of CCP in child-rearing and the development of conscience is developed by Cross (1999).

Some advocates for spanking claim that it can be done well under certain circumstances, such as if a warning is given first and if the spanking is done in private. Evidence for these claims is typically anecdotal.

Arguments against spanking

Anti-spanking advocates typically make several claims:

• There is a wealth of research showing that spanking negatively affects health and behavior.
• Spanking harms the parent-child bond, breaking trust.
• Children deserve to be safe from violence.
• Parents and caregivers can learn nonviolent forms of discipline that do not harm children.

Religious and sexual arguments

Even without sexual motives on the part of the punisher, some maintain that spanking may cause upsetting sexual sensations.

"[Spanking] can interfere with a child’s normal sexual and psychological development. Because the buttocks are so close to the genitals and so multiply linked to sexual nerve centers, slapping them can trigger powerful and involuntary sensations of sexual pleasure. This can happen even in very young children, and even in spite of great, clearly upsetting pain." Tom Johnson

"The literature is replete with accounts of rape victims who never came forward to name their accuser or even to admit they'd been violated because they were so ashamed at their bodies' involuntary response to touch, thinking that this would suggest they enjoyed the assault. Nerve endings can and do function without our conscious consent. The pendulum is beginning to turn against spanking and paddling as science amasses more and more evidence regarding the sexual role played by the buttocks, and the ways in which any touch--with a hand or with a paddle--can create unwelcome but unavoidable arousal." Dr. Teresa Whitehurst, member of ChristCentered Christians for Nonviolent Parenting (CCNP); clinical psychologist; author of How Would Jesus Raise a Child? (Baker Books, 2003), Project Zero, Harvard's premier research institution.

Spanking opponents who face opposition from the "Biblical" pro-spanking advocates can also use the "he who spares the rod hates his son" quote from Proverbs 13:24 to their advantage in a debate. The quote was attributed to Solomon, but his son Rehoboam grew up to be such a despised and hated ruler that his nation divided. However, this approach requires interpreting the rod as a physical device for beating, when it may have referred to a rod used to guide sheep and pull them back to the herd.

Alternatives to spanking

Main article: non-violent child discipline

Experts in child development suggest methods of non-violent child discipline which are at least as effective as spanking, and without the negative side-effects.

These may include:

• Praise and positive reinforcement for good behavior
• Intervening before the child misbehaves (e.g. to distract them, issue a reminder, or recommend a different behavior)
• Natural consequences
• Having a conversation with the child
• Loss of privileges
• Time out

Research suggests that time outs are at least as effective as spanking in the short term, and they do not appear to cause long-term behavior deterioration.

Other criticisms and questions about spanking

Some people opposing spanking have speculated on the links between eroticism and the spanking of children. They regard the spanking of children as a form of pedophiliac sexual abuse, and also claim that childhood spanking may lead to the development of paraphiliac behavior in later life.[2] [3] Donnelly and Straus (1994), for example, theorized that childhood spanking could lead to the development of masochistic tendencies.

In any case, these speculations have never been proven. Additionally, some people who enjoy erotic spanking report that they were never spanked as children.

Legality of spanking children

Spanking or otherwise hitting children is illegal in much of the developed world.

Corporal punishment of children in school is illegal in over 100 countries; it remains legal in roughly half of the U.S. states, although it is not commonly practised. In each of these states, it is up to each school district to determine whether corporal punishment will be used, in what situations will it be applied, and the manner in which it is given – typically by a paddle. There are cases where school officials have lost their jobs for spanking students.

In the United Kingdom, the smacking of children by teachers was made illegal in state schools in 1986 and extended to all schools in 1998. An amendment to the Children Act 2004 to ban smacking by parents was defeated by 424 votes to 75 in the House of Commons; however, an amendment to ban parents from smacking their children hard enough to leave a mark was accepted by 284 votes to 208, and came into force in January 2005 [4]. In January 2006, the UK’s four child commissioners called for a full ban on smacking, but this has been rejected by Tony Blair's government (Tony Blair has admitted spanking his own children). [5]

Spanking of children within families is illegal in some countries (for example, Sweden, Switzerland, Iceland, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Austria, Holland, Germany, Italy, Malta, Cyprus, Croatia, Israel, Latvia, Estonia, and as of January 2007, Greece). New Zealand is currently debating whether or not to outlaw parental spanking, having outlawed corporal punishment within its educational institutions in 1989.

Similar initiatives in the U.S. have repeatedly failed. Parental rights groups have formed since the 1990s to prevent spanking from being criminalized. Critics of these organisations ask why these organisations refer to corporal punishment as a parental 'right' without mentioning an equivalent need for parental responsibilities. Some critics also state that children's rights should come first, and parental rights should come second. Major groups in the United States seeking a ban on spanking are Parents and Teachers Against Violence in Education[6] and EPOCH-USA. [7]

The Supreme Court of Canada has, as of 2004, upheld a law which allows spankings by parents, caregivers, and teachers, but has restricted the law to only apply to children ages two to twelve[8]. However, Canada now bans spanking children under age 3 or over age 12, and bans the use of any implements (belts, paddles, etc.).

Countries that ban spanking have lower rates of teen violence.

Other usages

Domestic spanking claims to (re)educate the person "for their own good." The judicial model aims to enforce social rules "for the common good."

Domestic model

Spankings were, especially in the past, administered to other persons considered as legal (and/or moral) minors (sometimes illegally still treated as such), including;

• Wives (by their husbands) and women in general.
• Servants (especially domestics, not by coincidence also called (house)boy or maid; the British Lord Chief Justice declared their corporal punishment, like children's, indisputably justified in 1795);

• Often copied from domestic discipline, as in fraternites and sororities (originally living units where seniors and/or staff wielded the paddle rather like parents at home), and sports and other teams (though now nearly only as 'play' in hazing and rarely as actual coercive sanction) and other initiation context, as with recruits (in military, police and some other professions).

• Informal spankings in the domestic context can also occur in an institutional environment, parallel to the more formal punishments, when administered by the victim's peers.

In the US, it is illegal for foster parents to spank foster children.

Judicial model

Although non-erotic fiction usually shows or says corporal punishment for adults as administered above the waist, in most cultures and legal systems it was at least as common to administer on the buttocks, i.e. as a spanking, most forms of judicial and prison beatings (convicts by definition are at the mercy of the authorities; even today severe punishments, even the dreaded judicial 'Singapore' cane, are awarded to enforce internal prison rules in various countries).

For obvious practical reasons adults are rarely spanked over knee or lap, rather bending or bound over some object or construction (closely resembling the child's exposure, without the skin contact that is often undesirable or even indecent for the official spanker), in fewer cases standing or hanging (as usual for punishment above the waist) as against a wall or whipping post.

The very parallel with child discipline is part of the deliberate use of public humiliation as part of punishments. Hence, the condemned is often bared, completely or partly to expose the buttocks, or only covered for modesty, with little protection against the instrument; this is still usual under sharia in many countries. While even the back is sometimes left clad for an Islamic whipping, as in Saudi Arabia, in (ethnically mainly Chinese) Singapore and (Muslim) Malaysia it is more common to cane the bare buttocks.

• Often the strong arm of the law -mainly (para)military and police, not seldom charged with the physical execution of corporal punishment- and some similarly hierarchical organisations, has particularly strict internal discipline, usually enforced internally (as by court-martial, or in 'minor' cases simply by the superior officer), which in many traditions entailed punishing the culprit's (often bared) tail-end;
  • especially navies, where order must be maintained in confined spaces at all cost, are renowned for stern discipline, and some measure of it not unknown in merchant naval traditions either, but usually only 'boys' (including midshipmen, though) were spanked, adult sailors rather had their back and/or shoulders lashed;
  • in general the treatment of boys under arms has at least a measure of the paternalistic 'educational' discipline, often meaning they are more likely to have the bare bottom punished;
  • when martial law is imposed (formally or de facto), at home (as in Pakistan under sharia-zealous former president general Ziah al Haq [9]) or under military occupation, such harsh practice is often extended to the civilian population (more difficult to control and/or less respected) as well, even limiting normal process of law; while regular corps discipline is generally conducted within quarters or correctional facility, to 'whip' the masses into obedience public administration is often preferred for maximized deterrence; yet in some cases the accusations of 'war crime'-type punishment are somewhat hollow insofar as the occupied country often already used similar physical coercion, e.g. Korea publicly caning the criminal's bare behind over a bench before and during the Japanese rule [10]

• Judicial corporal punishment is making a comeback in a number of post-colonial, non-Islamic countries, including the cat o' nine tails in various Antillean Commonwealth nations.
• Furthermore there is a wave of reviving or beefing up of (re)legalized traditional justice, as by tribal chief's courts, and their customary punishments not infrequently include spanking, sometimes even carried out by the regular police force.
• Even where corporal punishment remains illegal, or is very restricted, it rather often is a common weapon for so-called vigilante justice, sometimes tolerated or even legally legitimated by the authorities (as in various parts of Africa, e.g. Botswana), sometimes practiced by rebels (as in Nepal), often remarkably popular with the general public or a large section where official 'modern' western-style justice seems unable to stem crime, as in South Africa.

• In at least one instance, an empress took it upon herself to dole out a spanking to an unruly subject:

“	Among the large number of men whom she treated this way were Leontius, who occupied the position of Referendarius, and Saturninus, son of Hermogenes the Magister, both of them just married. This Saturninus had married a second cousin, a maiden of good birth and excellent character, whose father Cyril had approved the match, Hermogenes having died earlier. No sooner had they shut themselves into the bridal chamber than Theodora seized the groom and carried him off to another chamber, where in spite of his heartbroken protestations he was married to Chrysomallo’s daughter. This Chrysomallo had once been a dancer and later a courtesan, but at the time of this incident she was living in the Palace with another Chrysomallo and Indaro. For there it was that after abandoning woman’s oldest profession and the life of the theatre they had established their headquarters. When Saturninus had slept with his new bride and found that she had been deflowered, he informed one of his intimate friends that the girl he had married was nothing but damaged goods. When this comment came to Theodora’s ears, she said that he was showing off and had no right to be so puffed up, and ordered her servants to bend him over like any schoolboy. Then she gave his behind a fearsome beating and told him not to talk such nonsense in future.	”
—Procopius, Secret History

• Finally, there are cases of 'summary justice' which don't even fit the vigilante logic, but still intends to enforce a social order by improvised corporal punishment, such as some Bolivian bus drivers using a belt on strike-breaking colleagues [11] on the streets, or “In French pit villages the wives of striking miners confronted scabs and humiliated them by removing their trousers and spanking them.” -Lynn Abrams, The Making of Modern Woman (New York: Pearson Education Limited, 2002), 203.

Other

The deterring effect of humiliation can be lessened or even outweighed by macho pride or, "taking it like a man". There are documented cases of British Royal Navy captains requesting corporal punishment under regulations prescribed to be publicly administered on the 'bare stern' with an instrument other than the one used on the bare backs of sailors. They considered being struck a 'man's punishment' and a virile badge of honor, worth the physical pain.

Non-punitive and voluntary spankings

Spanking is sometimes used in non-disciplinary contexts. Note the issue of legal consent which may or may not represent a defence to criminal liability for any injuries caused during the spanking. Apart from the erotic and from fraternity/sorority type initiations, which have their origin in educational (domestic or boot camp) types of discipline, these include:

Folkloristic spanking traditions

Religious customs

On the first day of the Lunar Chinese New Year holidays, a week-long 'Spring Festival', the most important festival for Chinese people all over the world, thousands of Chinese visit the Taoist Dong Lung Gong temple in Tungkang to go through the century-old ritual to get rid of bad luck, men by receiving spankings and women by being whipped (as in the Ancient Roman -unisex- Lupercalia); the number of strokes to being administered (always lightly) by the temple staff is decided in either case by the god Wang Ye and by burning incense and tossing two pieces of wood, after which all go home happily, believing their luck will improve. [12]

Birthday spanking

This is a custom in certain circles, to allow a number of others (e.g., father at home, teammates in a club, classmates in certain training institutions) to administer a spanking to the bottom of the birthday boy or girl, as an annual rite of passage and probably a matter of bonding. Customarily, the person receives a number of spanks corresponding to their age, plus, "one to grow on"; that is to say, someone who was turning n would receive n+1 spanks. These spanks are soft enough to not cause pain.

Another probably anecdotal tale is that of the ancient Egyptians using spanking on the birthday to prepare the person for the afterlife, i.e. soften the body for the tomb^{[How to reference and link to summary or text]}.

Another hypothetical origin for birthday spankings is the single smack on the bottom which doctors (or midwives) give to newborn infants, to start them breathing and thus begins their lives^{[How to reference and link to summary or text]}.

Recreational context

Playful enactment

Child's play often imitates real life, especially featuring part of daily life, even the most unpleasant.

Thus it has been recorded by a captain in the Royal Navy that boys on board often enacted the beatings they were subjected to in reality, both the 'day to day' caning and the truly painful and humiliating public administration of a flogging with the "boy's pussy" (lighter version of the cat o' nine tails) taking turns in the actual position on deck, sometimes including the lowering of the trousers (but using a cane for lack of a cat) [13].

See also

• Non-violent child discipline
• Aggression in children
• Antisocial behavior
• Humiliation
• Child physical abuse

External links

• Baumrind, D. (1995). Child Maltreatment and Optimal Caregiveing in Social Contexts. New York: Garland Publishing.
• Baumrind, D. (1995). A blanket induction against disciplinary use of spanking is not warranted by the data. Pediatrics, 98 (4), 828-831.
• Family Integrity
• World Corporal Punishment Research (corpun.com) — objective website with large, constantly improved documentation, especially on discipline of boys
• A pro-spanking activism group
• The Center for Effective Discipline (StopHitting.com)
• Is Corporal Punishment An Effective Means Of Discipline? (American Psychological Association)
• Corporal Punishment Articles (APA Psychological Bulletin Journal)
• Spanking (Focus on The Family)
• Canadian government advice against spanking
• Why It Hurts To Spank A Child
• A wiki devoted to Spanking Art, including a good deal of non-erotic spanking material.
• Leading research and community for voluntary spanking
• A spanking-neutral site that discusses safe and reasonable methods to spank a child
• Chris's Anti-spanking Web Page An advocacy site containing the writings of the creator of the alt.parenting.spanking newsgroup on Usenet
• Growing up Paddled, Belted, Switched or Swatted - Spanking is Never OK! Article written by Vicki Polin, MA, LCPC, Michael J. Salamon, PhD, FICP; and Na'ama Yehuda, MSC, SLP, TSHH
• Spanking facts and Research: Info about females who were spanked growing up -pornographic material
• End All Corporal Punishment of Children
• Project NoSpank