Can a Complete Ban on Corporal Punishment Lower Violence in Youth 

Orange County, CA - October 19th, 2018 -   Corporal punishment, also known as “physical discipline,” is described as using physical force to cause deliberate bodily pain or discomfort in response to undesired behavior. Corporal punishment is sometimes used in various settings such as home, school, judicial, and military. The term goes by a variety of names including hitting, paddling, swatting, spanking and beating.  According to the US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health, the United States currently has 19 states that allow corporal punishment in schools; of these states, 160,000 children are subject to it.

A new study published on October 16, 2018, in the BMJ Open, shows there is less violence among youth in countries with a complete ban on all corporal punishment of children. Previous research showed a clear relationship between adolescent spanking and negative outcomes later on, like aggression and mental health problems. However, in this case, the researchers’ state they see an association rather than a causal relationship between legal bans on corporal punishment and violence in youth.

The researchers used information taken from children in 88 countries around the world by the World Health Organization Health Behavior in School-Aged Children (HBSC) study and the Global School-Based Health Survey (GSHS). The children were surveyed at a variety of ages about how often they got into fights. Researchers compared that data with the information from each country about the ban on corporal punishment.

Can a Complete Ban on Corporal Punishment Lower Violence in Youth

They grouped the countries into three groups. The countries with a complete ban punishment at home and in schools (30 countries, the majority of which are in Europe, as well as a smaller number in Latin America, Asia and Africa); those with a ban in schools but not in the home (38 countries, among them China, the US, UK, and Canada), and those with no ban on corporal punishment (20 countries, ranging from Myanmar to the Solomon Islands).

The results were that there was 31% less physical fighting in young men and 42% less physical fighting in young women in countries where corporal punishment was banned in all settings, in comparison to where corporal punishment was permitted both at school and at home. The countries with a partial ban had a similar level of violence to countries with no bans. However, the level of violence in women was lower (at 56%).

"All we can say, at this point, is that countries that prohibit the use of corporal punishment are less violent for children to grow up in than countries that do not. At this point we are simply taking a stratospheric view of the issue at an international level and note the correlation. To be able to show an effect of bans on youth violence, we will need to go back in 4-8 years after more data has been collected. We will also need to ask children and youth more questions about what's going on at home, something that researchers have typically been shy to do,“ says Frank Elgar, of McGill's Institute for Health and Social Policy, the lead author on the study.

Due to the limitations of the study, more research is required. The next study will focus on if the bans resulted in less violence, or were countries that put bans in place already rejecting the idea of corporate punishment.

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Can a Complete Ban on Corporal Punishment Lower Violence in Youth  Orange County, CA – October 19th, 2018 –   Corporal punishment, also known as “physical discipline,” is described as using physical force to cause deliberate bodily pain or discomfort in response to undesired behavior. Corporal punishment is sometimes used in various settings such as home, school, […]