The Science and Statistics Behind Spanking Suggests that

11-FULLER_FINAL_AFTERPROOF.DOC 2/17/2009 8:50 AM
2009] THE SCIENCE AND STATISTICS BEHIND SPANKING 271
they were also beating their children twice as often. 135 By 1988, rates of
physical child abuse in Sweden had risen to three times the U.S. rate. 136
Moreover, from 1979 to 1994, Swedish children under seven endured an
almost six-fold increase in physical abuse. 137
Accordingly, many Swedes do not believe the spanking ban has
reduced child abuse. 138 Indeed, researchers are now realizing that
permissive parents are the most likely to resort to injurious, “explosive
attacks of rage.” 139 Such parents apparently become violent because
they feel they can “neither control the child’s behavior nor tolerate its
effect upon themselves.” 140
B. A Little Less Spanking, A Lot More Teen Violence
In recent years, Sweden has seen a wave of youth violence: 141
“hooliganism, excessive [celebrations], acts of violence with racist and
135. See, e.g., Richard J. Gelles & Ake W. Edfeldt, Violence towards Children in the United
States and Sweden, 10 CHILD ABUSE & NEGLECT 501, 506 (1986) (reporting their study of
thousands of Swedish and American parents. Gelles and Edfeldt found that 0.4% of Swedish
parents “threatened with a weapon” and “used a weapon” against their children, compared to 0.2%
in the U.S., and that “Swedish parents report more pushing, grabbing or shoving than American
parents . . . and double the rate of beating children . . . .”); LARZELERE, supra note 12, at 12-13
(after examining the Gelles-Edfeldt survey regarding the difference between telephone interviews
versus face-to-face interviews, saying that “the fairest and most conservative” estimate was that the
Swedish rate of beating children was 49 percent higher in 1980 than comparable American rates).
136. Compare Haeuser, supra note 111, at 34 (showing that the 1988 physical child abuse rate,
as reported to Swedish police, was 6.5 per 1,000 children) (“Since the Swedish police data omits
child abuse cases known to social services but not warranting police intervention, the actual
Swedish incidence rate is probably higher” than in the U.S.), with Lyons, supra note 112 (showing
the 1987 U.S. child abuse rate, when limited to physical abuse known to police or sheriffs, was only
2.2 per 1000) (citing National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect, Executive Summary, Study of
National Incidence and Prevalence of Child Abuse and Neglect, (1987) (U.S.)).
137. See, e.g., supra note 133 and accompanying text (showing that, by 1999, child abuse
leveled out at about six times as many cases as in 1981).
138. See, e.g., Haeuser, supra note 111, at iii (suggesting that most, if not all, Swedes believe
the spanking ban has not reduced the incidence of child abuse); tbls. 3.1-3.2, supra.
139. See, e.g., Lyons, supra note 112 (saying “permissive parents were the most likely to
report ‘explosive attacks of rage in which they inflicted more pain or injury upon the child than they
had intended . . . . Permissive parents apparently became violent because they felt that they could
neither control the child’s behavior nor tolerate its effect upon themselves.’ Permissive parents used
spanking less than did either authoritative or authoritarian parents. So it could be that the
prohibition of all spanking eliminates a type of mild spanking that prevents further escalation of
aggression . . . .”) (citation omitted).
140. See, e.g., id.
141. See, e.g., H. von Hofer, Criminal Violence and Youth in Sweden in a Long-term
Perspective, Presentation at the Tenth Workshop for Juvenile Criminology, Siena 1 (1995) (“In light