Prevalence, societal causes, and trends in corporal punishment by parents in world perspective

Law and Contemporary Problems

Volumn 73, Issue 2, 2010, Pages 1-30

  Straus, Murray A ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE   (United States)

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EID: 78649418351     PISSN: 00239186     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (102)

1. Elizabeth T. Gershoff, More Harm Than Good: A Summary of Scientific Research on the Intended and Unintended Effects of Corporal Punishment on Children, 73 LAW & CONTEMP. PROBS. 31 (Spring 2010).
2. MURRAY A. STRAUS, BEATING THE DEVIL OUT OF THEM: CORPORAL PUNISHMENT IN AMERICAN FAMILIES AND ITS EFFECTS ON CHILDREN 4 (2d ed. 2001).
3. In which this definition and some of the controversy over appropriate terminology are discussed.
4. See Jean Giles-Sims, Murray A. Straus & David B. Sugarman, Child, Maternal and Family Characteristics Associated with Spanking, 44 FAM. REL. 170, 170 (1995).
5. See generally JOHN K. ROSEMOND, TO SPANK OR NOT TO SPANK: A PARENTS' HANDBOOK (1994).
6. Murray A. Straus & Julie H. Stewart, Corporal Punishment by American Parents: National Data on Prevalence, Chronicity, Severity, and Duration, in Relation to Child and Family Characteristics, 2 CLINICAL CHILD & FAM. PSYCHOL. REV., 55, 57-60 (1999).
7. Reprinted in MURRAY A. STRAUS, EMILY M. DOUGLAS & ROSE ANE MEDEIROS, THE PRIMORDIAL VIOLENCE: CORPORAL PUNISHMENT IN THE UNITED STATES (forthcoming 2011) (article reprinted under new title Prevalence, Chronicity, and Severity).
8. SUZANNE MARTIN, YOUTH QUERY METHODOLOGY REPORT 2006 9-10 (Harris Interactive, Inc. 2006).
9. Murray A. Straus, Corporal Punishment of Children and Adult Depression and Suicide Ideation, in COERCION AND PUNISHMENT IN LONG-TERM PERSPECTIVE 59, 72-73 (Joan McCord ed., 1995).
10. Murray A. Straus, David B. Sugarman & Jean Giles-Sims, Spanking by Parents and Subsequent Antisocial Behavior of Children, 151 ARCHIVES PEDIATRIC & ADOLESCENT MED. 761, 761 (1997), reprinted in THE PRIMORDIAL VIOLENCE: CORPORAL PUNISHMENT BY PARENTS, COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT, AND CRIME.
11. Murray A. Straus & Mallie J. Paschall, Corporal Punishment by Mothers and Development of Children's Cognitive Ability: A Longitudinal Study of Two Nationally Representative Age Cohorts, 18 J. AGGRESSION MALTREATMENT & TRAUMA 459, 460 (2009).
12. Murray A. Straus, Differences in Corporal Punishment by Parents in 32 Nations and Its Relation to National Differences in IQ 2 (Sept. 25, 2009) (unpublished manuscript) (on file with Law and Contemporary Problems).
13. See generally Diana Baumrind, Robert E. Larzelere & Philip A. Cowan, Ordinary Physical Punishment: Is It Harmful? Comment on Gershoff (2002), 128 PSYCHOL. BULL. 580 (2002).
14. Robert E. Larzelere, Response to Oosterhuis: Empirically Justified Uses of Spanking: Toward a Discriminating View of Corporal Punishment, 21 J. PSYCHOL. & THEOLOGY 142, 146 (1993).
15. See generally FLORENCE L. GOODENOUGH, ANGER IN YOUNG CHILDREN (1931).
16. See generally RAYMOND H.C. TESKE, JR. & MARY L. PARKER, CRIMINAL JUSTICE CENTER, SPOUSE ABUSE IN TEXAS: A STUDY OF WOMEN'S ATTITUDES AND EXPERIENCES (1983).
17. Emily M. Douglas & Murray A. Straus, Assault and Injury of Dating Partners by University Students in 19 Countries and its Relation to Corporal Punishment Experienced as a Child, 3 EUR. J. CRIMINOLOGY 293, 296-303 (2006).
18. The response categories were (1) strongly disagree, (2) disagree, (3) agree, and (4) strongly agree. The CP rate at each university was measured by the percentage of students who did not "strongly disagree." This cutting point was based on the assumption that students who did not experience CP would most likely strongly disagree with the statement that they were "spanked or hit a lot." An exploratory analysis compared correlations using this cutting point with greater than two as the cutting point. The results showed higher correlations with not strongly disagreeing as the criterion.
19. CP are for preschool-age children, and because much of what happens at those ages is not remembered, the percentages are likely to be underestimates of the prevalence of CP. The percentages are further reduced because the question asked about being spanked or hit "a lot." Thus, students who were only occasionally hit are not included. Despite that, the rates shown in Table 2 are high.
20. See generally URIE BRONFENBRENNER, THE ECOLOGY OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT: EXPERIMENTS BY NATURE AND DESIGN (1979).
21. James Garbarino, A Preliminary Study of Some Ecological Correlates of Child Abuse: The Impact of Socioeconomic Stress on Mothers, 47 CHILD DEV. 178, 183-85 (1976).
22. Bridget Freisthler, Darcey H. Merritt & Elizabeth A. LaScala, Understanding the Ecology of Child Maltreatment: A Review of the Literature and Directions for Future Research, 11 CHILD MALTREATMENT 263, 272-73 (2006).
23. Three limitations of Figure 2 need to be kept in mind: First, though all the variables in Figure 2 have been linked to some type of interpersonal violence, not all have been linked to the specific type of violence known as CP. They are included on the basis of assuming that, because they are linked to other types of physical violence, they are likely to also be linked to CP. Second, there is little empirical evidence on the links between distal, mezzo, and proximate causes, and even less evidence on the feedback loops shown at the bottom of Figure 2. Third, use of "cause" is based on a theoretical assumption that the social characteristics identified in Figure 2 are causes, but the actual evidence only tells us that they are linked, not the causal direction. In many cases, the most plausible interpretation is a bidirectional relationship, as for example, the link shown in anthropological studies of the relation between the proneness of a society to warfare and CP-societies high in warfare are more likely to use CP, and societies that use CP are more likely to conduct wars.
24. See LARRY BARON & MURRAY A. STRAUS, FOUR THEORIES OF RAPE IN AMERICAN SOCIETY: A STATE LEVEL ANALYSIS 125-46 (1989).
25. Although the graphs in this and other figures are bivariate, the statistical tests used multiple regression to control two variables that could cause spurious results: the percent female in each sample of students in each nation, and score on a scale to measure the tendency to avoid disclosing socially undesirable beliefs and behavior. All results presented in these figures are statistically significant at the 0.05 level (one-tailed tests).
26. See generally Craig A. Anderson et al., Development and Testing of the Velicer Attitudes Towards Violence Scale: Evidence of a Four-Factor Model, 32 AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR 122 (2006).
27. THE SCRIPPS SURVEY RESEARCH CENTER AT OHIO UNIVERSITY, SURVEY: SHOH34 (2006), available at http://newspolls.org/surveys/SHOH34.
28. See generally Carol R. Ember & Melvin Ember, Explaining Corporal Punishment of Children: A Cross-Cultural Study, 107 AM. ANTHROPOLOGIST 609 (2005).
29. See generally LEARNING NON-AGGRESSION: THE EXPERIENCE OF NON-LITERATE SOCIETIES (Ashley Montagu ed., 1978).
30. DAVID LEVINSON, FAMILY VIOLENCE IN CROSS-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE (1989).
31. See generally Marshall H. Segall, Carol R. Ember & Melvin Ember, Aggression, Crime, and Warfare, in THE HANDBOOK OF CROSS-CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY 213 (John W. Berry et al. eds., 1997).
32. Carol R. Ember & Melvin Ember, War, Socialization, and Interpersonal Violence: A Cross-Cultural Study, 38 J. CONFLICT RESOL. 620 (1994).
33. See Manuel Eisner, Modernization, Self-Control, and Lethal Violence: The Long-Term Dynamics of European Homicide Rates in Theoretical Perspective, 40 BRIT. J. CRIMINOLOGY 618, 619 (2001) (describing the person-to-person violence as the "civilizing process").
34. See also generally NORBERT ELIAS, THE CIVILIZING PROCESS: THE HISTORY OF MANNERS (1978).
35. UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME, HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2006, BEYOND SCARCITY: POWER POVERTY AND THE GLOBAL WATER CRISIS 283-87 (2006).
36. Deuteronomy 22:12.
37. See generally Joan E. Durrant, Trends in Youth Crime and Well-Being Since the Abolition of Corporal Punishment in Sweden, 31 YOUTH & SOC'Y 437 (2000) [hereinafter Durrant, Trends in Youth Crime].
38. see also Joan E. Durrant, Evaluating the Success of Sweden's Corporal Punishment Ban, 23 CHILD ABUSE & NEGLECT 435, 437 (1999) [hereinafter Durrant, Sweden's Corporal Punishment]. 38.
39. Kai-D. Bussmann, Evaluating the Subtle Impact of a Ban on Corporal Punishment of Children in Germany, 13 CHILD ABUSE REV. 292, 295 (2004).
40. Another point illustrated by Figure 5, and one which applies to all the graphs in this article, is that the presumed causal variables in each graph explain only a small part of the nation-to-nation differences in use of CP. This is despite the fact that all the relationships graphed are statistically significant and most of the "effect sizes" are larger than those typical of most research in epidemiology, psychology, and sociology. For example, in the first column of Figure 5, the percentage of students who experienced a lot of CP ranged from 16% (Sweden) to 60% (Germany). Thus, there is a lot of variation above and below the average in each column of Figure 5 and the other graphs.
41. See Wendy Walsh, Spankers and Nonspankers: Where They Get Information on Spanking, 51 FAM. REL. 81, 81 (2002).
42. Murray A. Straus & Anita K. Mathur, Social Change and Trends in Approval of Corporal Punishment by Parents from 1968 to 1994, in FAMILY VIOLENCE AGAINST CHILDREN: A CHALLENGE FOR SOCIETY 91, 97 (D. Frehsee et al. eds., 1996).
43. Disciplining a Child, SURVEYUSA, http://www.surveyusa.com/50statedisciplinechild0805sortedbyteacher.htm (last visited on Sept. 6, 2010).
44. See generally SUE CARSWELL, SURVEY ON PUBLIC ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE PHYSICAL DISCIPLINE OF CHILDREN (Minstry of Justice, 2001).
45. See generally Christine A. Ateah & Joan E. Durrant, Maternal Use of Physical Punishment in Response to Child Misbehavior: Implications for Child Abuse Prevention, 29 CHILD ABUSE & NEGLECT 169 (2005).
46. Brigitte Vittrup, George W. Holden & Jeanell Buck, Attitudes Predict the Use of Physical Punishment: A Prospective Study of the Emergence of Disciplinary Practices, 117 PEDIATRICS 2055, 2059-60 (2006).
47. The percent believing that CP is sometimes necessary is based on classifying students who did not "strongly disagree" as believing it is sometimes necessary.
48. See generally WALTER BUCKLEY, SOCIOLOGY AND MODERN SYSTEMS THEORY (1967).
49. See generally Murray A. Straus, A General Systems Theory Approach to a Theory of Violence between Family Members, 12 SOC. SCI. INFO. 105 (1973).
50. See part III for a discussion of the "cultural spillover" theory.
51. See generally FRANKLIN E. ZIMRING & GORDON HAWKINS, CRIME IS NOT THE PROBLEM: LETHAL VIOLENCE IN AMERICA (1997).
52. See MARVIN E. WOLFGANG, PATTERNS IN CRIMINAL HOMICIDE 191 (1958).
53. See generally FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION, UNIFORM CRIME REPORTS: CRIME IN THE UNITED STATES, 1993 (1994).
54. Zeev Winstok & Murray A. Straus, Neighborhood Violence and Use of Corporal Punishment, Verbal Aggression, and Physical Abuse by a National Sample of Parents in Israel (Jan. 23, 2008) (unpublished manuscript) (on file with Law and Contemporary Problems).
55. Barbara A. Carson, Parents Who Don't Spank: Deviation in the Legitimation of Physical Force (1986) (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of New Hampshire) (on file with the University of New Hampshire).
56. Piyanjali Thamesha de Zoysa, Parental Use of Physical Force Towards School Children in the Columbo District: Prevalence, Psychosocial Correlates and Psychological Consequences (December 2005) (unpublished Ph.D thesis, University of Colombo) (on file with Law and Contemporary Problems).
57. Randal D. Day, Gary W. Peterson & Coleen McCracken, Predicting Spanking of Younger and Older Children by Mothers and Fathers, 60 J. MARRIAGE & FAMILY 79, 87 (1998).
58. See generally LEE ELLIS & ANTHONY WALSH, CRIMINOLOGY: A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE (2000).
59. See generally MURRAY A. STRAUS, RICHARD J. GELLES & SUZANNE K. STEINMETZ, BEHIND CLOSED DOORS: VIOLENCE IN THE AMERICAN FAMILY (reissued ed. 2006).
60. David M. Fergusson & L. John Horwood, Exposure to Interparental Violence in Childhood and Psychosocial Adjustment in Young Adulthood, 22 CHILD ABUSE & NEGLECT 339, 345 (1998).
61. See generally Murray A. Straus, Ordinary Violence, Child Abuse, and Wife Beating: What Do They Have in Common?, in PHYSICAL VIOLENCE IN AMERICAN FAMILIES: RISK FACTORS AND ADAPTATIONS TO VIOLENCE IN 8,145 FAMILIES 403 (Murrary A. Straus & Richard J. Gelles eds., 1990).v.
62. See generally D. G. GIL, VIOLENCE AGAINST CHILDREN: PHYSICAL CHILD ABUSE IN THE UNITED STATES (1970).
63. ALFRED KADUSHIN & JUDITH A. MARTIN, CHILD ABUSE: AN INTERACTIONAL EVENT (1981).
64. Miriam Gonzalez et al., What Predicts Injury from Physical Punishment?: A Test of the Typologies of Violence Hypothesis, 32 CHILD ABUSE & NEGLECT 752 (2008).
65. Nico M. Trocmé et al., Major Findings from the Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect, 27 CHILD ABUSE & NEGLECT 1427 (2003).
66. See generally Samuel X. Radbill, Children in a World of Violence: A History of Child Abuse, in THE BATTERED CHILD 3 (Ray E. Helfer & Ruth S. Kempe eds., 4th ed. 1987).
67. PETER NEWELL, CHILDREN ARE PEOPLE TOO: THE CASE AGAINST PHYSICAL PUNISHMENT (1989).
68. Discipline and the Law, THE CENTER FOR EFFECTIVE DISCIPLINE, http://www.stophitting.com/index.php?page=laws-main (last visited Sept. 6, 2010).
69. U.N. Comm. on the Rights of the Child, General Comment No. 8: The Right of the Child to Protection from Corporal Punishment and Other Cruel or Degrading Forms of Punishment, ¶ 3, U.N. Doc. CRC/C/GC/8 (Mar. 2, 2007).
70. See generally Joan E. Durrant, Linda Rose-Krasnor & Anders G. Broberg, Physical Punishment and Maternal Beliefs in Sweden and Canada, 34 J. COMP. FAM. STUD. 586 (2003) [hereinafter Durrant et al.].
71. See generally Murray A. Straus, Children Should Never, Ever, Be Spanked No Matter What the Circumstances, in CURRENT CONTROVERSIES ON FAMILY VIOLENCE 137 (Donileen R. Loseke, Richard J. Gelles & Mary M. Cavanaugh eds., 2005).
72. Robert E. Larzelere & Jack A. Merenda, The Effectiveness of Parental Discipline for Toddler Misbehaviour at Different Levels of Child Distress, 43 FAM. REL. 480 (1994).
73. See generally Joan E. Durrant, Legal Reform and Attitudes Toward Physical Punishment in Sweden, 11 INT'L J. OF CHILD. RTS. 147 (2003).
74. American Academy of Pediatrics, Guidance for Effective Discipline, 101 PEDIATRICS 723, 726 (1998).
75. ELIZABETH T. GERSHOFF, CENTER FOR EFFECTIVE DISCIPLINE, REPORT ON PHYSICAL PUNISHMENT IN THE UNITED STATES: WHAT RESEARCH TELLS US ABOUT ITS EFFECTS ON CHILDREN 26 (2008).
76. Interview with Elizabeth T. Gershoff (June 2009).
77. See generally JOSEPH R. GUSFIELD, SYMBOLIC CRUSADE: STATUS POLITICS AND THE AMERICAN TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT (1963).
78. JOSEPH R. GUSFIELD, THE CULTURE OF PUBLIC PROBLEMS: DRINKING-DRIVING AND THE SYMBOLIC ORDER (1981).
79. Joan E. Durrant, Physical Punishment, Culture, and Rights: Current Issues for Professionals, 29 J. DEV. & BEHAV. PEDIATRICS 55, 60 (2008).
80. See generally KERBY T. ALVY, BLACK PARENTING: STRATEGIES FOR TRAINING (1987).
81. Kirby Deater-Deckard et al., Physical Discipline Among African American and European American Mothers: Links to Children's Externalizing Behaviors, 32 DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOL. 1065 (1996).
82. Growing Numbers, Diverse Needs, 23 POPULATION REP., ser. J, no. 41, 1-2 (Population Information Program, Center for Communication Programs, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health 1995), available at http://info.k4health.org/pr/j41/j41chap1.shtml#top.
83. Murray A. Straus & Denise A. Donnelly, Corporal Punishment of Adolescents by American Parents, 24 YOUTH & SOC'Y 419 (1993).
84. See generally Doris Weichselbaumer & Rudolf Winter-Ebmer, The Effects of Competition and Equal Treatment Laws on Gender Wage Differentials, 22 ECON. POL. 237 (2007).
85. United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, opened for signature Nov. 20, 1989, 1577 U.N.T.S. 3.
86. see also Richard Reading et al., Promotion of Children's Rights and Prevention of Child Maltreatment, 373 LANCET 332, 332 (2009).
87. Robert Calvert, Criminal and Civil Liability in Husband-Wife Assaults, in VIOLENCE IN THE FAMILY 88-90 (Suzanne K. Steinmetz & Murray A. Straus eds., 1974).
88. See generally MARVIN HARRIS, CANNIBALS AND KINGS: THE ORIGINS OF CULTURES (1977).
89. See generally Godfrey J. Ellis & Larry R. Petersen, Socialization Values and Parental Control Techniques: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Child Rearing, 23 J. COMP. FAM. STUD. 39 (1992).
90. DAVID GARLAND, PUNISHMENT AND MODERN SOCIETY: A STUDY IN SOCIAL THEORY (1990).
91. See generally M. L. KOHN, CLASS AND CONFORMITY: A STUDY IN VALUES WITH A REASSESSMENT (1977).
92. See MELVIN L. KOHN, CLASS AND CONFORMITY: A STUDY IN VALUES 64-65 (2d ed. 1977).
93. Christopher Caldwell, Old-School Economics: The Transition to a New Economy is Over. Do Our Candidates Know It?, N.Y. TIMES MAG., Jan. 27, 2008, at 11.
94. See generally ROBERT BLAUNER, ALIENATION AND FREEDOM: THE FACTORY WORKER AND HIS INDUSTRY (1964).
95. See Donald C. Pelz, Some Expanded Perspectives on Use of Social Science in Public Policy, in MAJOR SOCIAL ISSUES: A MULTIDISCIPLINARY VIEW 346, 349 (J. Milton Yinger & Stephen J. Cutler eds., 1978).
96. See generally Carol H. Weiss & Michael J. Bucuvalas, Truth Tests and Utility Tests: Decision-Makers' Frames of Reference for Social Science Research, 45 AM. SOC. REV. 302 (1980).
97. See generally Naomi Aronson, Science as a Claims-Making Activity: Implications for Social Problems Research, in STUDIES IN THE SOCIOLOGY OF SOCIAL PROBLEMS 1 (Joseph W. Schneider & John I. Kitsuse eds., 1984).
98. Joel Best, Rhetoric in Claims-Making: Constructing the Missing Children Problem, 34 SOC. PROBS. 101, 101-02 (1987).
99. Joseph R. Gusfield, Constructing the Ownership of Social Problems: Fun and Profit in the Welfare State, 34 SOC. PROBS. 431 (1989).
100. CENTER FOR EFFECTIVE DISCIPLINE (Sept. 6, 2010), http://www.stophitting.com.
101. See generally Hakan Stattin et al., Corporal Punishment in Everyday Life: An Intergenerational Perspective, in COERCION AND PUNISHMENT IN LONG-TERM PERSPECTIVES 315 (Joan McCord ed., 1995).
102. Joan E. Durrant & Staffan Janson, Law Reform, Corporal Punishment and Child Abuse: The Case of Sweden, 12 INT'L REV. OF VICTIMOLOGY 139 (2005).