The Science and Statistics Behind Spanking Suggests that

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2009] THE SCIENCE AND STATISTICS BEHIND SPANKING 245
Sweden, however, youth violence and aggression has gotten so out-ofcontrol
that the reaction was, “Shoot another [one].” 4 Sadly, many
policymakers fail to realize how Swedish laws have contributed to
growing youth violence, and consequently, to public resentment of
Swedish youths.
In 1979, Sweden started an international trend by becoming the first
country to ban spanking. 5 Since then, twenty-three more countries have
outlawed it. 6 The European Committee of Social Rights currently is
urging all forty-five of its member nations to ban corporal punishment. 7
In 2007 alone, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Uruguay,
Venezuela, Spain, and Chile each enacted laws forbidding parents from
using physical discipline. 8 In that same year, California and
Massachusetts also introduced legislation to ban spanking. 9
Anti-spanking laws are proposed and passed with the hope that they
will create a “cultural spillover” of non-violence, and a society that does
not need correction. 10 For instance, when Italy’s Supreme Court
4. See Dödsskjutningen splittrar Rödeby [Lethal Shooting Divides Rodeby], NYHETER
FRÂN SVERIGES RADIO – EKOT, Oct. 12, 2007, available at http://www.sr.se/cgibin/ekot/artikel.asp?artikel=1652116
(“Bland vissa är förståelsen för pappan som dödade den 15årige
pojken stor. Flera dagar den här veckan har Rödebyskolans personal fått plocka ner lappar
från skolan där det stått bland annat ‘Skjut en mopedist till.’” [“Among some, there is great
understanding for the father who killed the 15-year-old boy. Several days this week Rodeby school
staff has had to take down signs from the school that said, among other things, ‘Shoot another
moped rider.’”]).
5. See U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Children and Violence, 7, INNOCENTI DIGEST NO.
2 (Sept. 1997) [hereinafter U.N., Children and Violence] (“In 1979, Sweden became the first
country to ban all physical punishment of children.”).
6. See EPOCH-Worldwide, Legal reforms: Corporal punishment of children in the family
(2008), available at http://www.stophitting.com/index.php?page=laws-main (listing twenty-four
countries that have banned spanking: Sweden (1979), Finland (1983), Norway (1987), Austria
(1989), Cyprus (1994), Denmark (1997), Latvia (1998), Croatia (1999), Israel (1999), Germany
(2000), Bulgaria (2000), Iceland (2003), Romania (2004), Ukraine (2004), Hungary (2004), Greece
(2006), Netherlands (2007), New Zealand (2007), Portugal (2007), Uruguay (2007), Venezuela
(2007), Spain (2007), Chile (2007), and Costa Rica (2008)).
7. U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF), A League Table of Child Maltreatment Deaths in Rich
Nations, 28, INNOCENTI REP. CARD NO. 5 (Sept. 2003) [hereinafter U.N., League Table] (“Europe’s
Social Rights Committee is pushing its 45 member countries [to legislate against spanking] whether
at school . . . in the home or elsewhere.”).
8. See supra note 6 and accompanying text.
9. Assem.B. 755, Reg. Sess. (Cal. 2007) (proposing to ban physical discipline using an
implement); H.B. 3922 (Mass. 2007) (proposing to ban corporal punishment).
10. See, e.g., Murray A. Straus, New Theory and Old Canards about Family Violence
Research, 38 SOC. PROBLEMS 180 (1991) (espousing the Cultural Spillover theory); U.N., Children
and Violence, supra note 5, at 7 (“[I]n 1996, Italy’s Supreme Court . . . declared unlawful any use of
violence for educational purposes within the family or in schools, affirming that ‘the very