The Science and Statistics Behind Spanking Suggests that

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11-FULLER_FINAL_AFTERPROOF.DOC 2/17/2009 8:50 AM 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
11-FULLER_FINAL_AFTERPROOF.DOC 2/17/2009 8:50 AM 2009] THE SCIENCE AND STATISTICS BEHIND SPANKING 297 2. Calling Spanking “Violent” Is Like Calling Timeout “Imprisonment” As intended, legislators are beginning to act merely on the slogan “violence begets violence.” 290 They are beginning to accept the “human rights” argument that, “if you cannot spank your neighbor, you should not spank your child.” 291 Not only is this argument inconsistent with the sound research, but it makes no sense in light of the fact that parents don’t have the same responsibility for their neighbors as they do their children. 292 We don’t force our neighbor to sit in the timeout chair, the corner, or the closet. We don’t compel our neighbor to do more chores, go to her room, go to bed early, or handwrite 200 times “I’ve been a bad neighbor.” We don’t keep her from eating dinner, visiting friends, or playing with toys. We don’t give our neighbors any of the punishments we give children because we are not responsible to help our neighbors mature like we are our children. 293 progression from interpretations of article 7 of the Civil and Political Rights Covenant, which forbids subjecting anyone to torture or to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.”). 290. See, e.g., U.N., League Table, supra note 7, at 28 (“‘If you hit your child you’re telling the child that hitting is reasonable behaviour.’ . . . In sum, the widespread use of physical punishment in the bringing up of children, it is argued, is a mass lesson in the legitimacy of violence as a method of resolving conflicts or asserting will.”). 291. See, e.g., id. at 28 (“The Committee [of Ten] does not find it acceptable that a society which prohibits any form of physical violence between adults would accept that adults subject children to physical violence.”). 292. Compare, e.g., MONROE M. LEFKOWITZ, PH.D., LEONARD D. ERON, PH.D., LEOPOLD O. WALDER, PH.D. & L. ROWELL HUESMANN, PH.D., GROWING UP TO BE VIOLENT 192 (1977) (finding “moderate punishment by parents in the long run produced less aggressive children than either no punishment or harsh punishment . . . . However, when harsh punishment is used, particularly with children who weakly identify with their parents, aggression is heightened— probably as a result of the modeling. At the same time, permissiveness, as indicated by no punishment, is equally deleterious according to our data,”), with, e.g., Diana Baumrind, Ph.D., A Blanket Injunction Against Disciplinary Use of Spanking Is Not Warranted by the Data, 98 PEDIATRICS 828, 829 (1996) [hereinafter Baumrind, Not Warranted] (saying children “readily understand” that being spanked by their parents does not entitle them to “aggress offensively against their peers”). Even Dr. Straus suggests that it is best to be firm, just not with spanking. See MURRAY A. STRAUS, THE PRIMORDIAL VIOLENCE (forthcoming 2009), ch. 14, at A4 (saying that the combination of love and firm guidance is the best—just without spanking). 293. See, e.g., David Benatar, Corporal Punishment, 24 SOC. THEORY & PRAC. 237 (Summer 1998), available at http://www.corpun.com/benatar.htm (“If we suggest that hitting a wrongdoer imparts the message that violence is a fitting means to resolve conflict, then surely we should be committed to saying that detaining a child or imprisoning a convict conveys the message that restricting liberty is an appropriate manner to deal with people who displease one. We would also be required to concede that fining people conveys the message that forcing others to give up some of their property is an acceptable way to respond to those who act in a way that one does not like. If
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