NCJ Number
117225
Journal
Lay Panel Magazine Volume: 21 Dated: (April 1989) Pages: 4-5
Date Published
1989
Length
2 pages
Annotation
The author contends that hitting children is a form of criminal child abuse.
Abstract
Corporal punishment and child abuse are linked, based on the view that children are persons and not property. A study is cited in which 85 adult-child pairs and 85 adult pairs were observed in British streets to compare adult behavior toward children. Eighty percent of adult pairs conversed, looked, or smiled at each other. Less than half the adult-child pairs had any communication at all. Children were told off, to shut up, and to stop doing what they were doing, and were often hit. One psychoanalyst believes that societal cruelty and violence are rooted in the way children are traditionally raised 'not to feel' and that a cycle of punishment and violence is continued by adults who were hurt and humiliated by their own, often well-intentioned, parents. If children are accepted as persons in society's cultural ethic, physical force should not be used against them. To hit children means killing their psyche, emotions, and potential.