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Parents strongly resist anti-spanking laws

Posted by Richard Collins

Pro-spanking advocates insist they are against spanking bans because they wish to protect the sanctity of parental discretion. Leave aside the ethics or efficacy of using violence against children as a form of discipline. The issue is that parents must not be hampered in any way as they carry out their parental duties in accordance with their personal judgment. But does their argument withstand careful scrutiny?

Few parents would expect to go into a court and defend themselves against a motor vehicle code violation issued for not complying with a child safety seat ordinance. Laws are in effect all over the country that demand children under certain height and weight specifications ride in child seats and not regular passenger seats. This is because in case of a crash, inflatable air bags can actually kill or maim a small child when they inflate. Passenger car seats are designed for adult bodies, not child bodies and can actually produce injuries to children.

The child safety seat laws are founded on scientific research that predicts what will likely happen to children who are not protected by riding in a seat especially constructed for their safe transportation. Likewise, spanking bans are founded on scientific studies of the harm that will likely happen statistically to a number of children if such bans are not in place. Anti-spanking bans are not based simply on conjecture, but derive their authority based on valid data, rigorously compiled and analyzed.

Libertarian supporters of parental rights don’t seem to object to mandatory child safety seat laws. If their concern is really about government interference in their parental decision making, shouldn’t they therefore resist buying and using expensive child safety seats? What right does the government have to insist parents protect their children from harm by putting them in a car safety seat?

Likewise, many cities and towns have vehicle codes that require children to wear safety helmets when riding on a bike or as a passenger on a motorcycle. Do parents who favor unrestricted control over their decision making, think they would survive a court challenge in case they disregard child safety helmet laws?

When you board an airplane your children must wear a seat belt or you and the child will be removed from the plane. Why do libertarians not object to this intrusion into their parental decision making.

The objection to a spanking ban fails for the same reason that the parental rights defense fails in the instances cited. Although parental rights certainly have a place in the overall scheme of how society raises future generations, child safety deserves a higher priority than noble, abstract, theoretical considerations defending unrestricted parental rights.

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Posted on Saturday, November 28th, 2009 at 10:42 pm in Children's rights, Human rights, Parental rights.

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» Posted on November 29, 2009 at 12:38 am

russel

My stance on the matter aside, I thoroughly enjoy your misuse of logic here. Persuasion 101 – you're using false comparisons. You cannot compare things that protect a child from physical harm to spanking (which I assume the argument is that it is causing emotional harm, because spanking that causes physical harm IS illegal). I am actually against spanking, but would like the government OUT OF MY HOUSE HOLD. :)

» Posted on November 30, 2009 at 2:36 am

Richard_Collins

Statistical studies reveal a pattern. A significant number of parents who give themselves permission to use corporal punishment, thinking they will never cross the line into abuse, eventually escalate the force and frequency of the corporal punishment until a child winds up in the hands of the authorities. Thus rationale for a total ban against striking children (or verbally abusing them as well). Have you read any of the reports on these web sites:

Plain Talk About Spanking
http://www.nospank.net/pt2009.htm

Global Progress Report Towards Ending All Corporal Punishment
http://www.endcorporalpunishment.org/pages/pdfs/r...

People who have not been alert to developments may not realize that there is an international movement to end all corporal punishment of children around the world. This movement has attracted considerable support and is making big strides. You will be amazed.

» Posted on November 30, 2009 at 4:52 pm

HiD

Spanking does cause physical harm in that it causes neurological harm, connecting pain to sexuality in the neurological wiring which is still developing. As the child gets older and has more sexual feelings, the neurological connections created by spanking often lead to the child confusing pain and domination and sexuality. This is true regardless of the intentions or experiences of the person doing the spanking. More attention should be put on how it is on the receiving end. If the parent does not have sexual feelings, that does not mean the child is not affected sexually. Not all children who are spanked are harmed in their sexual development, but a large number of them are, and if you spank your child you are putting them at risk for a problem that is not just psychological, it is neurological and developmental. So yes, it does physical harm. Take some classes, go to some support groups, get some parenting skills. There is plenty else to do besides spank, so is no excuse for it. It is laziness- it is a result not bothering to learn the other options which at this point are readily available to the parent who seeks them out.

» Posted on January 12, 2010 at 7:04 pm

RayneVanDunem

While it is interesting to think about how a United States without legally-sanctioned corporal punishment would look like, I do find trouble with your comparisons between a total ban on corporal punishment and other government restrictions upon parental activity (i.e., driving without a child safety seat if a child is inside, not latching the child to a seat belt on a plane). Legally, the other government restrictions are enforceable because parents are making use of avenues of transportation or residence which are governed by the government at various levels: patrolpeople can enforce the law on the road, airline personnel and guards can enforce the law on a plane or in an airport.

The same cannot be said, legally, for what parents do in their home on a frequent and persistent basis. Anything short of murder or sexual assault/battery is considered a matter with an expectation of privacy, including physical assault/battery by parents. The enforcement of any law regulating corporal punishment in the home, where parents who were raised in their earlier years under a corporally-punishing regime are very likely to frequently corporally punish their own progeny as a reversion to the "I turned out fine" justification, would need to be increasingly patrolled by police or social workers who can penalize the parents or household for such a reversion.

This scenario is probably most feared and depicted as an apocalyptic or 1984-police-state-like scenario by libertarians and social/religious conservatives ("The government in your home", "the government raising your children", "the government against the family", "the government killing privacy in the home", etc.), and could be one of the reasons for why so many religiously-conservative religious groups set up their own private schools or homeschools and maintain an extreme antipathy against public school systems.

I don't think any model for fighting corporal punishment in the home within pre-existing legal constraints exists, nor does any model for enforcing a ban on such punishment that can respect the lengths of a parent's sanity regarding the proclivities of their progeny without allowing the parent to physically assault the minor(s).

» Posted on March 22, 2010 at 1:46 am

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