The Science and Statistics Behind Spanking Suggests that

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296 AKRON LAW REVIEW [42:243
However, most of the population does not think spanking is violent
or abusive. 285 If spanking were abusive, the child abuse rate would not
be only five percent while the spanking rate is around eighty percent. 286
Eighty is just too far from five to say spanking equals abuse. Indeed, as
the use of spanking decreases, child abuse rates seem to rise steadily. 287
Yet, the more spanking opponents are able to change our child
discipline vocabulary, the more judges, juries, and legislators may think
corporal punishment is not legally reasonable discipline. 288 Language
manipulation provides a way to infuse the law with anti-spanking
philosophy, without subjecting that philosophy to critical examination. 289
285. Compare, e.g., M. Siegal & M.S. Barclay, Children’s Evaluation of Father’s
Socialization Behavior, 21 DEV. PSYCH. 1090 (1985), with M. Siegal & J. Cowen, Appraisals of
Intervention: The Mother’s Versus the Culprit’s Behavior as Determinants of Children’s
Evaluations of Discipline Techniques, 55 CHILD DEV. 1760-66 (1984) (together finding that
working class Australian children from five to seventeen years old “were asked to judge the
acceptability of the use of four different methods of discipline in fictitious vignettes involving a
parent and a 4-year-old.” All approved both reasoning and spanking over permissiveness and love
withdrawal.); Baumrind, Causally Relevant Research, supra note 21, at 12 (“The majority of U.S.
adults questioned in a recent survey by Yankelovich continue to regard it as “appropriate to spank a
child as a regular form of punishment” (Question 41), and their position is shared by most children
and adolescents. Several studies report a high level of acceptance by young adults, including
college students, of the use of spanking by their parents during childhood, and respondents
generally state that they intend to spank their own children.”) (citations omitted) (footnote omitted).
286. See, e.g., Trumbull, supra note 123 (“Surveys indicate that 70 to 90 percent of parents of
preschoolers use spanking, yet the incidence of physical child abuse in America is only about 5
percent.”) (footnote omitted).
287. See, e.g., id. (“[O]ver the past decade reports of child abuse have steadily risen while
approval for parental spanking has steadily declined.”); Memorandum from the National Committee
to Prevent Child Abuse (May 1995). Note, however, that the U.N. reports that children are
“victimized” at higher rates than adults, but it can only do this because it labels even mild spanking
“victimization.” U.N., Children and Violence, supra note 5, at 6. If “victimization” denotes severe
physical interactions, then “victimized” adults and children should have similar resultant death
rates; but they don’t. While some claim the child “victimization” rates are very high, the
corresponding death rates are consistently lower—up to ten times lower—than the death rates of
victimized adults. U.N., League Table, supra note 7, at 10 fig. 6. This suggests that many children
are not truly victimized.
288. If social scientists and legislators alter the language of spanking and make it sound
violent enough, then spanking may eventually be outlawed. See, e.g., Deana A. Pollard, Banning
Corporal Punishment: A Constitutional Analysis, 52 AM. U. L. REV. 447, 454 (“[D]espite referring
to the parental right to control children’s upbringing as ‘fundamental,’ the Court’s historical and
contemporary analysis of the right has shown little deference to parental actions that may harm
children.”).
289. See, e.g., Straus, ROUNDTABLE, supra note 175, at 65 (saying that Sweden “sought to
redefine what was then legally and morally acceptable behavior carried out by most parents, such as
spanking”); Bitensky, supra note 19, at 404-05 (“The Convention of the Child’s absolute
prohibition of corporal punishment of children also builds upon and, indeed, represents a further